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THE RING AND THE BOOK 



BY 



ROBERT BROWNING 



ifrom t\)t autl)or'0 HebificD ^m 



EDITED WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTES 
AND INTRODUCTION 

BY 

CHARLOTTE PORTER and HELEN A. CLARKE 

EDITORS OF " POET-LORK " 



If^^^'' 



i 



I 



NEW YORK : 46 EAST r4TH STREET 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 

BOSTON : ICX3 PURCHASE SlREET 






Copyright, iSgr, 
By T. Y. crow ell & CO. 



Norinooti ^rtSB 

J. S. Cusl.inK & Co. B>Tvi-ick & Smith 

Norwoud Mass. U.S.A. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Biographical Introduction ..... .o. xi 

Introductory Essay xxv 

Bibliography .. = ... xlv 

THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

I. The Ring and the Book ....... i 

II. Half- Rome . . .1*^ 34 

III. The Other Half-Rome . l'' 70 

IV. Tertium Quid . . . I ' loS 

V. Count Guido Franceschini 145 

VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi . ^ 191 

VII. PoMPiLiA . . . .' ;,. 239 

VIII. DoMiNus Hyacinthus de Archangelis, pauperum procu- 
rator t/ 280 

IX. Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius, Fisci et Rev. 

Cam. Apostol. Advocatus . '^ 322 

X. The Pope 359 

XI. Guido 407 

XII. The Book and the Ring 461 

Appendix 483 

vii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FACING PAGE 

Portrait of Browning from Photograph . . Frontispiece ^' 

Palazzo Riccardi, Florence 2 ^ 

Church and Square of San Lorenzo, Florence . . . . 4 ^ 

Castle of Sant' Angelo 30 

Fiesole 62' 

Interior of the Basilica of St. Peter's, Rome . . . .83" 

General View of Rome from the Quirinale .... 100 ' 

Church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, Rome 1 11 

Perugia 168 

Cathedral of Arezzo 198' 

Church of S.a.nt.\ Mari.a. della Pieve, Arezzo. Interior . . 213 '^ 

Assisi 218'' 

Arezzo 273"^ 

Interior of the Sistine Chapel 305V 

Pope Innocent XII 359*' 

Count Guido 407 ^ 

Piazza del Popolo, Rome 465 ^ 



\ 



BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 



" A peep through my window, if folk prefer ; 

But, please you, no foot over threshold of mine." — 'HOUSE.' 

WHEN some depreciator of the familiar declared that " Only in 
Italy is there any romance left," Browning replied, "Ah! well, I 
should like to include poor old Camberwell," and " poor old Camber- 
well," where Robert Browning was born, May 7, 1812, offered no meagre 
nurture for the fancy of a child gifted with the ardor that greatens and 
glorifies the real. 

Nature still garlanded this suburban part of Lendon with bowery 
spaces breathing peace. The view of the region from Heme Hill over 
softly wreathing distances of domestic wood " was. before railroads came, 
entirely lovely," Ruskin says. He writes of •' the tops of twenty square 
miles of politely inhabited groves," of bloom of lilac and laburnum and of 
almond-blossoms, intermingling suggestions of the wealth of fruit-trees in 
enclosed gardens, and companioning all this with the furze, birch, oak, 
and bramble of the Norwood hills, and the open fields of Dulwich " ani- 
mate with cow and buttercup." 

Nature was ready to beckon the young poet to dreams and solitude, 
and, too close to need to vie with her, the great city was at hand to 
make her power intimately felt. From a height crowned by three large 
elms. Browning, as a lad, used to enjoy the picturesqueness of his "poor 
old Camberwell." Its heart of romance wa^ centred for him in the 
sight of the vast city lying to the westward. His memory singled out 
one such visit as peculiarly significant, the first one on which he beheld 
teeming London by night, and heard the vague confusion of her collec- 
tive voice beneath the silence of the stars. 

Within the home into which he was born, equally well-poised condi- 
tions befriended him, fostering the development of his emotional and 
intellectual nature. His mother was once described by Carlyle as "the 
true type of a Scottish gentlewoman." Browning himself used to say of 



xii BIOGRAPHICAL IXTRODC/CTION. 

her "with tremulous emotion," according to his friend, Mrs. Orr, "she 
was a divine woman.'' Her gentle, deeply religious nature evidently 
derived its evangelical tendency from her mother, also Scotch ; while 
from her father, William Wiedemann, ship-owner, a Hamburg German, 
settled in Dundee, who was an accomplished draughtsman and musician, 
she seems to have derived the liking and facility for music which was 
one of the characteristic bents of the poet. To this Scotch-German 
descent on his mother's side the metaphysical quality of his mind is 
accouniable, concerning which Harriet Martineau is recorded as having 
said to him, " You have no need to study German thought, your mind is 
German enough already." The peculiarly tender affection his mother 
called out in him seems to have been at once proof and enhancement of 
the mystical, emotional, and impressible side of his disposition; and 
these traits were founded on an organic inheritance from her of " w^hat 
he called a nervousness of nature," which his father could not have 
bequeathed to him. 

Exuberant vitality, insatiable intellectual curiosity and capacity, the 
characteristics of Robert Browning the elder, were the heritage of his 
son, but raised in him to a more effective power, through their transmu- 
tation, perhaps, as Mrs. Orr suggests, in the more sensitive physique 
and temperament inherited from his mother. Of his father. Browning 
wTote that his " Powers, natural and acquired, would easily have made 
him a notable man, had he known what vanity or ambition or the love 
of money or social influence meant." He had refused to stay on his 
mother's sugar plantation at St. Kitt's in the West Indies, losing the 
fortune to be achieved there, because of his detestation of slavery, and the 
office he filled in the Bank of England was never close enough to his 
liking to induce him to rise in it so far as his father had risen ; but it 
enabled him to indulge his tastes for many books and a few pictures 
and to secure for his son, as that son said shortly before his death, " all 
the ease and comfort that a literary man needs to do good work." 

One of the poet's own early recollections gives a picture that epito- 
mizes the joint influence of his happy parentage. It depicts the child 
" sitting on his father's knees in the library, listening with enthralled 
attention to the tale of Troy, with marvellous illustrations among the 
glowing coals in the fireplace ; with, below all, the vaguely heard 
accompaniment — from the neighboring room where Mrs. Browning sat 
' in her chief happiness, her hour of darkness and solitude and music' — 
of a wild Gaelic lament." 

His father's brain was itself a library, stored with literary antiquities, 
which, his son used to say, made him seem to have known Paracelsus, 
Faustus, and even Talmudic personages personally, and his heart was 



BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xiii 

so young and buoyant that his lore, instead of isolating him from his 
boy and girl, made him their most entertaining companion. 

It is not surprising that under such circumstances the ordinary school- 
ing was too puerile for young Robert's wide-awake wits. He was so 
energetic in mind and body that he was sent to a day-school near by 
for peace' sake at an early age, and sent back again, for peace' sake, too, 

because his proficiency made the mammas complain that Mrs. was 

neglecting her other pupils for the sake of bringing on Master Browning 
Home teaching followed. Also home amusement, which included the 
keeping of a variety of pets, — owls, monkeys, magpies, hedgehogs, an 
eagle, a toad, and two snakes. If any further proof is needed of the 
hospitable warmth of his youthful heart, an entry in his diarj- at the 
age of seven or eight may serve — " married two wives this morning." 
This referred, of course, to an imaginary appropriation of two girls lie 
had just seen in church. 

Later he entered the school of the Misses Ready and passed thence 
to their brother's school, staying there till he was fourteen, but his con- 
tempt for the petty and formal learning which is the best accorded 
many children, was marked, and perfectly natural to a boy who delighted 
to plunge in the deeper knowledge his father's book-crammed house 
opened generously to him. 

In the list, given by Mrs. Orr, of books early attractive to him. were 
a seventeenth edition of Quarles's ' Emblems '; first editions of ' Robinson 
Crusoe,' and Milton ; the original pamphlet. '■ Killing no Murder' (1559) 
which Carlyle borrowed for his ' Cromwell ' ; an early edition of the 
* Bees ' by the Bernard Mandeville, with whom he was destined later to 
hold a * Parleying' of his own ; rare old Bibles ; Voltaire ; a wide range 
of English poetry ; the Greek and Elizabethan dramatists. 

His father's profound love of poetry was essentially classic, and his 
marked aptitude in rhyming followed the models of Pope, but Brown- 
ing's early poet was Byron, and all his sympathies were warmly roman- 
tic. His verse-making, which began before he could write, resulted at 
twelve in a volume of short poems, presumably Byronic, which he 
gracefully entitled ' Incondita.' 

He wanted, in vain, to find a publisher for this, and soon afterwards 
destroyed it, but not before his mother had shown it to Miss Flower, 
and she, to her sister, Sarah Flower, and to Mr. Fox, and the budding 
poet had thus gained the attention of three genuine friends. 

Shortly after this, the Byronic star which had shed its somewhat 
lurid influence over the first ebullitions of his genius, was forever ban- 
ished by the appearance of a new star within his field of vision. In- 
credible as it may seem to the present generation, he had never heard 



xiv BIOGRAPHICAL IXTRODUCTION. 

of Shelley, and if it had not been for a happy chance, an important in- 
fluence in the early shaping of his poetic faculties might have been 
postponed until too late to furnish its quickening impulse. 

One day in passing a book-stall, he happened to see advertised in a 
box of second-hand wares a little book, • Mr. Shelley's Atheistical 
Poems:' very scarce. Though the little second-hand volume was 
only a miserable pirated edition, by its means such entrancing glimpses 
of an unsuspected world were revealed to the boy that he lono-ed to 
possess more of Shelley. His mother, accordingly, sallied forth in search 
of Shelley's poems, which, after many tribulations, she at length found at 
C. and J. Ollier's of Vere Street. She brought away not only nearly all 
of Shelley in first editions (the ' Cenci ' excepted), but three volumes 
of Keats, whom she was assured would interest anybody who liked 
Shelley. Browning, himself, used to recall how, at the end of this 
eventful day, two nightingales, one in the laburnum at the end of his 
father's garden, and one in a copper beech in the next garden, sang in 
emulation of the poets whose music had laid its subtile spell upon him. 
While Keats was duly appreciated, it was Shelley who appealed most 
to Browning, and although it was some years before any poetic mani- 
festation of Shelley's influence was to work itself out, he, with youthful 
ardor, at once adopted the crude attitude taken by Shelley in his 
immature work ' Queen Mab,' became a professing atheist, and even 
went so far as to practise vegetarianism, of which, however, he was soon 
cured because of its unpleasant effect on his eyesight. Of his atheism 
Mrs. Orr says, " His mind was not so constituted that such doubt fast- 
ened itself upon it ; nor did he ever in after life speak of this period of 
negation except as an access of boyish folly, with which his mature self 
could have no concern. The return to religious belief did not shake 
his faith in his new prophet. It only made him willing to admit that 
he had misread him. This period of Browning's life remained, never- 
theless, one of rebellion and unrest, to which many circumstances may 
have contributed besides the influence of one mind." 

With the exception of the poetic awakening just recorded, Brown- 
ing's youthful life is uneventful. 

By his father's decision his education was continued at home with 
instruction in dancing, riding, boxing, fencing ; in French with a tutor 
for two years ; and in music with John Relfe for theory, and a Mr. Abel, 
pupil of Moscheles, for execution, doubtless supplemented with contin- 
uous browsing among the rare books in his father's library. At eighteen 
he attended a Greek class at the London University for a term or two 
and with this his formal education ceased. It was while at the uni- 
versity that his final choice of poetry as his future profession was made. 



BIOGRAPHICAL IXTRODUCTIOX. xv 

That he had a bent in other artistic directions as well as that of poetry 
is witnessed by his own confession written on the fly-leaf of a first 
edition of • Pauline ' now treasured in the South Kensington Museum. 
*' ' Pauline ' written in pursuance of a foolish plan I forget, or have no 
wish to remember; involving the assumption of several distinct 
characters : the world was never to guess that such an opera, such a 
comedy, such a speech proceeded from the same notable person." 

Some idea had been entertained of the possibility of Robert's quali- 
fying himself for the bar, but Mr. Browning was entirely too much in 
sympathv with his son's interests to put any obstacles in the way of his 
choice, and did everything in his power to help him in establishing 
himself in his poetical career. When the decision was made. Brown- 
ing's first step was to readanddigest the whole of Johnson's Dictionary. 

During these years of preparation his consciousness of his own latent 
powers, together with youthful immaturity, made him, from all accounts, 
a somewhat obstreperous personage. Mrs. Orr says that his mother 
was much distressed at his impatience and aggressiveness. '• He set 
the judgments of those about him at defiance, and gratuitously pro- 
claimed himself everything that he was and some things that he was 
not." It is probable, as his sister suggests, that the life of Camberwell, 
in spite of the dear home to which he was much attached, and a small 
coterie of congenial friends, including his cousins, the Silverthornes, 
and Alfred Domett, did not afford sutficient scope for the expansion of 
his eager intelligence. 

In 1833 appeared the first flowering of his genius in " Pauline,' for the 
publication of which his aunt, Mrs. Silverthorne, furnished the money. 
It was printed with no name afiixed, by Saunders and Otley. 

The influence of Shelley breathes through this poem ; not only is it 
immanent in the music of the verse, but in its general atmosphere, 
while one of its finest climaxes is the apostrophe to Shelley beginning, 
" Sun-treader, life and light be thine forever ! " These influences, 
however, are commingled with elements of striking originality indi- 
cating, in spite of some crudities of construction, that here was a new 
force in the poetic world. Not many recognized it at the time. Among 
those who did was his former friend. Mr. Fox. then editor of the Monthly 
Repository, who gave ' Pauline ' a sympathetic review in his magazine. 
Later, another article praising it was printed in the same magazine. 
This and one or two other inadequate notices ended its early literary 
history, and thus was unassumingly planted the first seed of one of the 
most splendid poetical growths the world has seen. How completely 
' Pauline ' was forgotten is sliown bv the anecdote told of Rossetti's 
coming across it in the British ]\Iuseum twentv vears later, and guess- 



xvi BIOGRAPHICAL IXTRODUCTION: 

ing from internal evidence that it was by the author of * Paracelsus.' 
Delighted with it, he transcribed it. If he had not, it might have 
remained buried there to this day, for Browning was very loath to 
acknowledge this early child of his genius. 

A journey to Russia at the invitation of the Russian consul-general, 
Mr. Benckhausen, with whom he went as nominal secretary, and the 
contribution to the MontJily Repository of five short poems fills up the 
time until the appearance of * Paracelsus.' Most remarkable among 
these short poems were • Porphyria's Lover' and 'Johannes Agricola in 
Meditation,' of which Mr. Gosse says. " It is a curious matter for reflec- 
tion that two poems so unique in their construction and conception, so 
modern, so interesting, so new could be printed without attracting atten- 
tion so far as it would appear from any living creature." 

Paracelsus was suggested as a subject to Browning by Count de Ripert 
Monclar, a young French Royalist, who, while spending his summers in 
England, formed a friendship with the poet. The absence of love in 
the story seemed to him afterwards a drawback, but Browning, having 
read up the literature of Paracelsus at the British Museum, decided to 
follow his friend's suggestion and according to promise dedicated the 
poem to Count Monclar. 

In the days when he was writing 'Paracelsus' Browning was fond of 
drawing inspiration from midnight rambles in the Dulwich woods, and 
he used often to compose in the open air. Here we may perhaps find 
an explanation of the fact that in these earlier poems there is a constant 
interfusion of nature imagery which, later, when the poet "fared up and 
down amid men," gave place to the human emotions upon which his 
thoughts became concentred, or appeared only at rare intervals. 

Mr. Fox, always ready to praise the young poet whom he had been 
the first to recognize, was upon the publication of ' Paracelsus ' 
seconded by John Forster, who wrote an appreciative article about it in 
the Examiner. 

If ' Paracelsus ' did not win popularity, it gained the poet many 
friends among the literary men of the day. From this period dates the 
acquaintanceship of notabilities like Serjeant Talfourd, Home, Leigh 
Hunt, Barry Cornwall, Harriet Martineau, Miss Mitford, Monckton 
Milnes, Dickens, Wordsworth. Landor, and others. The most impor- 
tant in its consequences of his new friendships was that begun with the 
celebrated actor William Macready, to whom he was introduced by 
Mr. Fox. Macready, delighted with Browning, shortly after asked him 
to a New Year's party at his house at Elstree. 

Every one who met the poet seemed attracted by his personality. 
Macready said he looked more like a youthful poet than any man he 



BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xvii 

had ever seen. Mr. Sharpens description of liim from hearsay is more 
definite. As a young man he appears to have had a certain ivory deli- 
cacy of coloring. He appeared taller than he was, partly because of 
his rare grace of movement and partly from a characteristic high poise 
of the head when listening intently to music or conversation. Even 
then he had the expressive wave of the hand which in later years was 
as full of various meanings as the Ecco of an Italian. 

A swift alertness pervaded him noticeably as much in the rapid 
change of expression, in the deepening and illuming colors of his 
singularly expressive eyes, and in his sensitive mouth as in his grey- 
hound-like apprehension, which so often grasped the subject in its 
entirety before its propounder himself realized its significance. His 
hair — then of a brown so dark as to appear black — was so beautiful 
in its heavy, sculpturesque waves as frequently to attract attention. 
His voice then had a rare flute-like tone, clear, sweet, and resonant. 

The influence of Macready turned the poet's thoughts toward writing 
for the stage. A drama, ' Narses,' was discussed, but for some reason 
abandoned, and the subject of Strafford was decided upon in its place. 

The occasion upon which the decision was made gives an attractive 
glimpse of the young Browning receiving his first social honor. It was 
at a dinner at Talfourd's after the performance of ' Ion,' in which Mac- 
ready acted. Mr. Sharpe says : — 

" To his surprise and gratification. Browning found himself placed 
next but one to his host and immediately opposite Macready, who sat be- 
tween two gentlemen, one calm as a summer evening, the other with a 
tempestuous youth dominating his sixty years, whom the young poet 
at once recognized as Wordsworth and Walter Savage Landor. When 
Talfourd rose to propose the toast of ' The Poets of England,' every one 
probably expected that Wordsworth would be named to respond ; but 
with a kindly grace, the host, after flattering remarks upon the two 
great men then honoring him by sitting at his table, coupled his toast 
with the name of the youngest of the poets of England, Mr. Robert 
Browning, the author of ' Paracelsus.' According to Miss Mitford, he 
responded with grace and modesty, looking even younger than he was." 

The conversation turning upon the drama. Macready said, " Write a 
play, Browning, and keep me from going to America." The reply came, 
" Shall it be historical and English ? What do you say to a drama on 
Straff"ord?" 

' Bordello ' had already been begun, but '■ Strafford ' and a journey to 
Italy were to intervene before it was finished. 'Strafford' was per- 
formed at Covent Garden, May i, 1837, with Macready as Strafford and 
Helen Faucit as Lady Carlisle, was well received, and would probably 



xviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION-. 

have had a long run had it not been for difficulties which arose in the 
theatre management. 

If Shelley was the paramount influence of his youthful years, from 
the time of his Italian journey in 1838, Italy became an influence which 
was henceforth to exert its magic over his work. He liked to call Italy 
his university. In ' Sordello ' he had already chosen an Italian subject, 
and his journey was undertaken partly with the idea of gaining personal 
experience of the scenes wherein the tragedy of Sordello"s soul was 
enacted. 

It was published in 1840, and except for a notice in the Eclectic Re- 
view , and the appreciation of a few friends, was ignored. A world not 
over sensitive to the beauties of his previous work, could hardly be 
expected to welcome enthusiastically a poem so complex in its his- 
torical setting and so full of philosophy. Even the keenest intellects 
approach this poem with the feeling that they are about to attack a 
problem ; for in spite of undoubted power and many beauties, it must 
be confessed that the luxuriance of the poet's mental force often unduly 
overbalances his sense of artistic proportion. Evidently the world was 
frightened. The little breeze, with which Browning's career began, 
instead of developing as it normally should into a strong wind of uni- 
versal recognition, died out, and for twenty years nothing he could do 
seemed to win for him his just deserts, though his very next poem, 
' Pippa Passes,' showed him already a consummate master of his forces 
both on the artistic side and in the special realm which he chose, the 
development of the soul. 

' Pippa Passes,' ' King Victor and King Charles,' and " The Return of 
the Druses ' lay in his desk for some time without a publisher. He 
finally arranged with Edward Moxon to bring them out in pamphlet 
form, using cheap type, each issue to consist of a sixteen-page form, 
printed in double columns. This was the beginning of the now cele- 
brated series, 'Bells and Pomegranates.' They were issued from 1841 
to 1846, and included all the dramas and a number of short poems. 

The only one of these poems with a story other than literary, is ' The 
Blot in the 'Scutcheon,' written for Macready, and performed at Drury 
Lane, on February 11, 1843. A favorite weapon in the hands of the 
Philistines has been the often reiterated statement that the performance 
was a failure. A letter from Browning to Mr. Hill, editor of the Daily 
News, at the time of the revival of ' The Blot ' by LaAvrence Barrett 
in 1884, drawn out by the same old falsehood, gives the truth in regard 
to the matter, and should silence once for all the ubiquitous Philis- 
tines. 



BIOGRAPHICAL IXTRODL'CTION: xix 

" Macready received and accepted the play, while he was engaged at 
the Haymarket, and retained it for Dmry Lane, of wliich I was ignorant 
that he was about to become the manager : he accepted it at the instiga- 
tion of nobody. . . . When the Drury Lane season began, Macready 
informed me that he would act the play when he had brought out two 
others, — 'The Patrician's Daughter' and 'Plighted Troth.' Having 
done so, he wrote to me that the former had been unsuccessful in money- 
drawing, and the latter had • smashed his arrangements altogether' : but 
he would still produce my play. In my ignorance of certain symptoms 
better understood by Macready's professional acquaintances — 1 had no 
notion that it was a proper thing, in such a case, to release him from 
his promise ; on the contrary, I should have fancied that such a pro- 
posal was oftensive. Soon after, Macready begged that I would call on 
him : he said the play had been read to the actors the day before, *and 
laughed at from beginning to end ' ; on my speaking my mind about 
this, he explained that the reading had been done by the prompter, a 
grotesque person with a red nose and wooden leg, ill at ease in the love 
scenes, and that he would himself make amends by reading the play 
next morning, — which he did, and very adequately, — but apprised me 
that in consequence of the state of his mind, harassed by business and 
various troubles, the principal character must be taken by Mr. Phelps ; 
and again I failed to understand, . . . that to allow at Macready's the- 
atre any other than Macready to play the principal part in a new piece 
was suicidal, and really believed I was meeting his exigencies by accept- 
ing the substitute. At the rehearsal. Macready announced that Mr. 
Phelps was ill, and that he himself would read the part : on the third 
rehearsal, Mr. Phelps appeared for the first time . . . while Macready 
more than read, rehearsed the part. The next morning Mr. Phelps 
waylaid me to say . . . that Macready would play Tresham on the 
ground that himself, Phelps, was unable to do so. ... He added that 
he could not expect me to waive such an advantage, — but that if I were 
prepared to waive it. ' he would take ether, sit up all night, and have the 
words in his memory by next day.' I bade him follow me to the green- 
room, and hear what I decided upon — which was that as ALacready had 
given him the part, he should keep it : this was on a Thursday ; he re- 
hearsed on Friday and Saturday, — the play being acted the same even- 
ing, — of the fifth day after the ' reading'' by Alacready. Macready at 
once wished to reduce tlie importance of the play . . . tried to leave 
out so much of the text, that I baffled him by getting it printed in four 
and twenty hours, by Moxon's assistance. He wanted me to call it • The 
Sister!' — and I liave before me . . . the stage-acting copv, with two 
lines of his own insertion to avoid the tragical ending — Tresham was 
to announce his intention of going into a monastery! all this, to keep 
up the belief that Macready, and Macready alone, could produce a veri- 
table 'tragedy' unproduced before. Not a sliilling was spent on scen- 
ery or dresses. If your critic considers this treatment of the play an 
instance of ' the failure of powerful and experienced actors ' to insure its 
success, — I can only say that my own opinion was shown by at once 



XX BIOGRAPHICAL IXTRODUCTIOiV. 

breaking off a friendship . . . whicli had a right to be plainly and 
simply told that the play I had contributed as a proof of it would, through 
a change of circumstances, no longer be to my friend's advantage. . . . 
Only recently, . . . when the extent of his pecuniary embarrassments 
at that time was made known, could I in a measure understand his mo- 
tives — less than ever understand why he so strangely disguised them. 
If "applause,' means success, the play thus maimed and maltreated was 
successful enough ; it ' made way ' for Macready's own Benefit and the 
theatre closed a fortnight after." 

Browning's second visit to Italy took place in the autumn of 1844, from 
which he returned to meet with the supreme spiritual influence of his 
life. ' Lady Geraldine's Courtship ' had just been published, and Brown- 
ing expressing his enthusiasm for it to Mr. Kenyon, a dear friend of his 
and a cousin of Miss Barrett's, the latter immediately suggested that 
Browning should write and tell her of his delight in it. The corre- 
spondence soon developed into a meeting which was at first refused by 
Miss Barrett in a few self-depreciative words, " There is nothing to see 
in me, nothing to hear in me, I am a weed fit for the ground and dark- 
ness." 

Mr. Browning's fate was sealed at the first meeting, we are told, but 
Miss Barrett, conscious of the obstacle offered by her ill-health, was not 
easily won, and only consented, at last, with the proviso that their 
marriage should depend upon improvement in her health. 

Though the new joy in her life seemed to give her fresh strength, her 
doctor told her, in the summer of 1846, that her only hope of recovery 
depended upon her spending the coming winter in Italy. Her father 
having absolutely refused to hear of such a course, she was persuaded 
to consent to a private marriage with Mr. Browning, which took place 
on September 12, 1846, at St. Pancras Church. A week later they 
started for Italy. Mrs. Orr writes : — 

"In the late afternoon or evening of September 19, Mrs. Browning, 
attended by her maid and her dog, stole away from her father's house. 
The family were at dinner, at which meal she was not in the habit of 
joining them ; her sisters, Henrietta and Arabel, had been throughout 
in the secret of her attachment and in full sympathy with it ; in the 
cas'e of the servants she was also sure of friendly connivance. There 
was no diiificulty in her escape, but that created by the dog, which might 
be expected to bark its consciousness of the unusual situation. She 
took him into her confidence. She said, ' O Flush, if you make a sound, 
I am lost.' And Flush understood, as what good dog would not, and 
crept after his mistress in silence." 

Mr. Barrett never forgave her and never saw her again. The sur- 
prise and consternation of Mr, Browning's family was soon transformed 



BIOGRAPHICAL IXTRODUCTION. xxi 

into love for Mrs. Browning, while Mr. Kenyon, who had not been told 
because, as Mrs. Browning said, she did not wish to implicate any one 
in the deception she was obliged to practise against her father, was 
overjoyed at the result of his kindly offices in bringing the two poets 
together. 

After a journey full of suffering for Mrs. Browning and the tenderest 
devotion on the part of Mr. Browning, they halted at Pisa, memorable 
as the spot where Mrs. Browning presented her husband with the 
matchless ' Sonnets from the Portuguese.' Mrs. Browning's health im- 
proved greatly in the genial climate. The whole of their married 
life, with the exception of occasional summers in England and two 
winters in Paris, was spent in Italy, and what that married life was in 
its harmonious blending of two unusually congenial souls we have 
abundant evidence in the glimpses obtained from Mrs. Browning's let- 
ters, and the recollections of it in the minds of their many friends. 

In the summer of 1847 they established themselves in Florence in 
the Casa Guidi. It became practically their Italian home, varied by 
sojourns in Ancona, at the baths of Lucca, Venice, and winters in 
Rome in 1854 and 1859. 

In Florence, March 9, 1849, their son was born, and to Mrs. Brown- 
ing's life, especially, was added one more element of intense happiness. 
Mrs. Orr thinks that in Pompilia in ' The Ring and the Book,' is reflected 
the maternal joy as Browning saw it revealed in Mrs. Browning's rela- 
tion to her son. A shadow was at the same time cast over Browning's 
life by the death of his mother, who died just as the news was received 
of the birth of her grandchild. Mrs. Browning, writing to a friend, 
said. '' My husband has been in the greatest anguish. . . . He has 
loved his mother as such passionate natures only can love, and I never 
saw a man so bowed down in an extremity of sorrow, — never." 

The first effect of Browning's marriage seems to have been to put his 
muse to sleep. Up to 1850 the only events in his literary career were 
the performance of ' The Blot ' at Sadler's Wells in 1848, and the issue 
of a collected edition of his works in 1849. ^" 1850. in Florence, he 
wrote ' Christmas Eve ' and ' Easter Day,' and in Paris, 1857, the ' Essay 
on Shelley ' to be prefixed to twenty-five letters of Shelley's, that after- 
wards turned out to be spurious. 

The fifty poems in ' Men and Women ' complete the record of Brown- 
ing's work during his wife's life. They appeared in 1855. and reflect 
very directly new sources of inspiration which had come into his life 
with his marriage. 

Though Mr. and Mrs. Browning led a comparatively quiet life, they 
gathered around them, wherever they were, a distinguished circle of 



xxii BIOGRAPHICAL LVTRODCCT/OIV. 

friends. In the early days at Florence, they much enjoyed the society 
of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Joseph Milsand and George Sand — the 
first a cherished friend, the last simply "an acquaintance — ^ connect 
themselves with their life in Paris, while in London and Rome all the 
bright particular stars of the time circled about them, some of whom 
were the Storys, the Hawthornes, the Carlyles, the Kemble sisters, Car- 
dinal Manning, Sir Frederick Leighton, Rossetti, Val Princeps, and 
Landor. 

Mrs. Browning's death at dawn, on the 29th of June, 1861, cut short 
the golden period of these Italian days. Even in his bereavement he 
had cause to be poignantly happy. For he had watched beside his 
wife on that last night, and she, weak, though suffering little and with- 
out presentiment of the end which even to him seemed not so immi- 
nent, had given him, as he wrote. — "• what my heart will keep till I see 
her again and longer, — the most perfect expression of her love to me 
within my whole knowledge of her."' He added, '■' I shall grow still, I 
hope, but my root is taken and remains."' He left Florence never to 
return. His settling in London that winter was a result of his wife's 
death, destined to bring him into closer touch with an English public 
which was to like him yet. The change was dictated by his care for 
his son's education, whose well-being he considered a trust from his wife. 

In 1862, he wrote from Biarritz of ' Pen"s' enjoyment of his holidays, 
adding, " for me I have got on by having a great read at Euripides 
besides attending to my own matters, my new poem that is about to be 
and of which the whole is pretty well in my head — the Roman murder 
story." But the Roman murder story was long in taking shape as 
'The Ring and the Book.' It had been conceived in one of his last 
June evenings at Casa Guidi, but the rude break in his life made by 
Mrs. Browning's death remains marked in the record of this work's 
incubation. During the next years spent in London, with holidays in 
Brittany, work went steadily on, first for the three-volume collected 
edition of 1863 of his works, and then for 'Dramatis Personas.' pub- 
lished in the year following, before ' The Ring and the Book ' came out 
at last, in 1868. 'With the appearance of this, and the six-volume 
edition of his works, the poet began to reap the abundant fruits of a 
slow but solidly-founded fame. 

It was not until 1871, however, that the "great read at Euripides" 
showed its significance in ' Balaustion's Adventure ' and four years 
later again, in ' Aristophanes' Apology.' rounding out thus his original 
criticism of Greek life and literature and especially affecting '■ Euripides 
the human,' whom his wife had been earliest to deliver from blunder- 
ing censure. 



BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION: xxiii 

While in the midst of this prosperous scheme of work he wrote : 
" I feel such comfort and delight in doing the best I can with my own 
object of life, poetry, — which, I think, I never could have seen the 
good of before, — that it shows me I have taken the root I did take 
well. I liope to do much more — and that the flower of it will be put 
into Her hand somehow." 

His father had died in Paris in 1866, at the age of eio-hty-five. 
Brother and sister, now each left alone, lived together thenceforth a 
life of tranquil uneventful ness, alternating between London and the 
Continent — a life rich in pleasant acquaintances and warm friendships 
and increasingly full of invitations and honors of all sorts for the poet. 
Supreme among the friendships was that with Miss Anne Egerton 
Smith. Music was the special bond of sympathy between her and 
Browning, and while they were both in London no important concert 
lacked their appreciation. Miss Browning, her brother, and Miss 
Smith spent also four successive summers together, the fourth at 
Saleve, near Geneva, where Miss Smith's sudden death was the occasion 
of Browning's poem on immortality, 'La Saisiaz." Among the honors 
the poet received were the organization of the London Browning 
Society in 1881, degrees from Oxford and from Cambridge, and nomina- 
tions for the Rectorship of Glasgow University and for that of St. 
Andrews. The latter was a unanimous nomination from the students, 
and as an evidence of the younger generation's esteem of his poetic 
influence was more than commonly gratifying to Browning, although 
he declined this and all other such overtures. 

His activities during the remainder of his da3's. his social and friendly 
life in London and later in Venice, were habitually cheerful and genial. 
He sedulously cultivated happiness. This was indeed the consistent 
result of the fact to which those who knew him best bear witness, that 
he held the great lyric love of his life as sacred, and cherished it as a 
religion. Those who know the whole body of his work most inti- 
mately will be readiest to corroborate this on subtiler evidence ; for 
only on the hypothesis of a unique revelation of the significance of 
a supreme human love from whose large sureness smaller dramatic 
exemplifications of love in life derive their vitality can the varied 
overplay of his art and the deep sufficiency of his religious reconcilia- 
tion of Power and Love be adequately understood. As he himself once 
said, the romance of his life was in his own soul. To this perhaps the 
bibliography of his works will ever provide the most accurate outline 
map. 

After the issue of his Greek pieces, the most noticeable new features 
of his remaining work may be summed up as idyllic and lyric. A new 



xxiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION: 

picturesqueness interpenetrated his dramatic pieces, as if he were 
dowered with a fresh pleasure in eyesight. This was shown in the 
'Dramatic Idyls.' A new purity intensified his lyrical faculty. This 
is shown in the lyrics in ' Ferishtah's Fancies ' and in ' Asolando.' 

To his whole achieved work add the brief final record of his content- 
ment in his son's marriage in 1887, his removal to the house he bought 
in De Vere Gardens, the gradual weakening of his robust health in his 
last years, his painless death in Venice in his son's Palazzo Rezzonico 
on the very day, December 12, 1889, of the issue of 'Asolando' in 
London, his burial in Westminster Abbey in Poets' Corner, December 
31, and the story of Robert Browning's earthly life is told. 

Charlotte Porter. 
Helen A. Clarke. 
May 20, 1896. 



4 
-1. 



^ 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 



" The Ring and the Book," in the estimation of one of its most 
appreciative critics, James Thomson, may be classed among those 
rare works of literature, philosophy, or art which give the impression 
of being too gigantic to have been wrought out by a single man. 
With the unerring instinct of the poet for subtle and illuminating 
analogies, he compared it in its grandeur and complexity to a great 
Gothic cathedral. ''For here truly," he says, "we find the soaring 
towers and pinnacles, the multitudinous niches with their statues, the 
innumerable intricate traceries, the gargoyles wildly grotesque ; and, 
within, the many colored light through the stained windows, with the 
red and purple of blood predominant, the long, pillared, echoing aisles, 
the altar with its piteous crucifix and altar-piece of the Last Judgment, 
the organ and choir pealing their Miserere and De Profundis and In 
Excelsis Deo, the side chapels and confessionals, the fantastic wood- 
carvings, the tombs with effigies sculptured supine ; and, beneath, yet 
another chapel, as of death, and the solemn sepulchral crypts. The 
counterparts of all these, I dare affirm, may veritably be found in this 
immense and complicate structure, whose foundations are so deep and 
whose crests are so lofty. Only as a Gothic cathedral has been termed 
a petrified forest, we must image this work as a vivified cathedral, thrill- 
ing hot, swift life through all its marble nerves." 

This analogy of the living cathedral illustrates the richness of the 
poem as an artistic product. It involves, moreover, a characteristic 
difference or development from the methods of Gothic art. It is by 
virtue of the life instinct within it that Gothic art and the art of " The 
Ring and the Book " are akin ; but it is the distinctive trait of the art 
of the poem that it parts utterly with the rigidity and stability of 
inorganic form. The shifting, flowing trend of all the independent 
parts of the poem toward an organic unity of design is the only sort 
of fixity to which Browning's art is bound. 

The social organism, made up of living, growing personalities, each 
intrinsically valuable, but dependent on one another for the working 

XXV 



xxvi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 

out of their ultimate significance, is the closest exemplar of the artistic 
plan of the poem. Not content with social material, the poet devises 
an artistic method that is also social. 

His own share as artist in the creation and purport of the poem 
falls into place, at the outset, as itself also an element to be taken 
account of in the interplay of human personalities behind the action 
presented in the bare facts of the story. What the poet's own touch 
upon the facts was, what intent he held toward them, and what his 
art's impress upon them might be worth, are, broadly speaking, the 
questions upon which he arouses interest in his first book. 

This first book is in the nature of a prologue to the poem, and so 
original in its conception as to have caused much querulous grumbling 
among that class of critics which feels aggrieved when brought face to 
face with something not before met in its experience. Instead of pre- 
senting a more or less ornamental generalization of the poet's purpose, 
or a symbolic picture of the underlying motive of the poem, or the 
even less vital rhetorical flourishes characteristic of many poetical 
prologues, it lays before the reader a complete sketch of the plot, — 
thus shattering at one blow an element of dramatic art upon which 
authors have largely relied as a means of piquing attention by alluring 
it onwards in doubting suspense to some much-wished for, half-suspected 
denouement. Has not the poet substituted for the sacrificed plot-devel- 
opment something quite as alluring? Examining it more closely, this 
prologue will be found to possess not only the power of arousing to 
the utmost an interested curiosity as to what is to follow, but to 
contain intrinsic elements of rare fascination. It is like some finely 
constructed overture, which, having a distinct subject of its own, yet 
combines with it in a harmonious whole all the varying musical themes 
later to be unfolded and enriched in the body of the opera. 

The grand central th^me^of tlie prologue is the worth of art as a 
revealer of a higher truth than lies in the fact alone. This is stated 
in the opening lines by means of the beautiful symbolism of the ring. 
The poet then proceeds to unfold about this main thought the pro- 
cesses of the artist-mind, from its first seizure upon the bare fact and 
recognition of its truth as pure gold, through the ever-deepening 
phases of inspiration, until the work of poetic art, by the alloy of 
fancy, is rounded into as perfect a shape as the exquisite ring wrought 
by " Castellani's imitative craft.'" As a means for illustrating this 
development of his inspiration, the poet chooses naturally enough the 
story found in the old yellow book which is to be the subject-matter 
of the poem. In showing the growth of his own fancy about this nug- 
get of truth, he at the same time reveals the incidents of the story, not 



J 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxvii 

primarily for the sal<e of telling it. but, by the way, as he pictures the 
various relations set up between the fact and fancy in this inceptive 
process. Thus, at the same time that we are shown into the inner- 
most sanctum of the poet's genius, and are permitted to see the crea- 
tive forces actuaIIy_at,work, the story is made knowa. 

""Tollowing the development of the poet's inspiration, it is found to 
pass from the external to the internal. The first step in the process 
is the discovery of the book, and the unalloyed facts of the story are 
told just as they appear in it. Then, as the poet's fancy works, the 
characters seem to become real and living personalities to him, and 
he describes them as he sees them ; but, although there is here revivi- 
fication, the poet himself is still the visible medium between the char- 
acters in the story and the reader or listener. He must dive deeper 
yet ; he must not only see them living before his own inner vision, 
he must so enter into their natures that he will be able to make them 
speak directly to others, himself entirely out of sight, — the artist lost 
in his creations. ^ 

In this manner, we are gradually led from an interest in the exter- 
nalities of the plot to an interest in the personality of the characters 
themselves ; an interest which the poet proceeds to whet by giving a 
sketch of those who are to reveal themselves in the future, with suf- 
ficiently tantaUzing glimpses of their various points of view. The 
reader, by this time, is in some such state of expectation as one might 
be who had seen photographs of a great actor and read eulogiums 
upon him, and was about to experience the reality of that which had so 
frequently come to him by indirections. 

The multiform design sketched in the opening book unfolds its nicely 
adjusted parts in the remaining books in harmonious accord with this 
richlv modulated overture. 

Leaving the personal presence of the modern poet of highly developed 
consciousness towards the art by which his story shall take on the 
hue of life, the sensibilities .are first made familiar with the atmos- 
phere of the deed that was done in Seventeenth-Century Rome, — the 
better to reach the quivering heart of its experience, a little later, — by 
becoming acquainted, in the three following books, with the three 
Romans who part between them all typical public opinion. The 
environment of the story shown in this first group of three books is 
essentially human and psychical. It is not at all an environment of the 
insensate physical sort usually studied by the scientist who investigates 
the causes of social phenomena. It consists in the presentation of the 
influence of the deed upon the contemporary Roman citizen and of 
the reflection of the color of his character upon the story. Through 



xxvui IXTRODUCTOKV ESSAY. 

this living and breathing environment of the old Roman murder case, 
as if through the outer rim of some planet's atmosphere which is that 
planet's specific influence upon the vagues of ether about it, the poem 
passes on to penetrate still closer toward the true focus of the action. 

In the second group of three books, therefore, the three main actors 
in the story successively emerge : Count Guido Franceschini, first, 
since he is its prime mover, yet most external and material factor ; 
Giuseppe Caponsacchi, next, the counterforce awakened to repel his 
malevolent activity ; and, then, Pompilia. Passivity personified, she 
seems, yet is the inmost effluence in the poem of subtle spiritual in- 
sight and good will, radiating her light, — as if she were indeed some 
central orb of whiteness, — upon Caponsacchi first, because he stands 
closest to her in intuitive moral rectitude, and thence diffusing even 
through the outer cycle of darkness where Guido writhes, the resistless 
rays of her illumination. 

The order of the poem turns outward again with the third group of 
three books. Is this, also, in keeping with the design? Are these 
learned technicalities of the two lawyers and the elaborate balancing 
and ethical probing of the Pope the natural sequence? Yes; for the 
racial impulse spoke in Pompilia's fidelity to her motherhood which 
dictated her escape under Caponsacchi's championship, and the insti- 
tution of the family asserted its prerogative in the marital supremacy 
on which Guido relied to sanction his slaughter. The issue raised 
was a matter of social concern and affecting the moral order. The 
poem setting forth in quest of life and truth traces the pathway of these 
outgoing beams and encompasses them with their nucleus in its har- 
monious system. Professional equity, robed in all her ceremonial 
trappings, appears accordingly in the three following books. On the 
one side writes the husband's advocate, with pomp of legal precedent, 
yet in laying his personal impress on his plea speaks most vitally. 
On the other side, the wife's advocate upholds the moral dominion of 
the Law, yet fastens the interest closest where it most lay for him, upon 
his own oratorical ambition and dexterity. Finally, the Church herself 
officially assays the value of each act and claim, but, her judgment find- 
ing embodiment and instrument in the wise and aged Antonio Pigna- 
telli, the test of his personal experience is applied in giving sentence. 

The artistic warrant for the second appearance of Guido in the suc- 
ceeding book appears as an inevitable part of this interknit, socially 
conceived work of art. There is no word but must be made flesh and 
subject to diverse human scrutiny. The sentence of death, therefore, 
must have sentence pronounced upon it by the soul most intimate with 
the crime. The crowning voice of " The Ring and the Book," accord- 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxix 

ingly, is the voice of him whom society has condemned. In the eleventh 
book, at his eleventh hour, Guido combats the sentence and caustically 
arraigns civilization and religion, speaking now, fittingly, not as Count 
or Franceschini but without privilege of name and race, simply as the 
human being, — Guido. So, at the close of the book, when his doom 
smites his soul with sudden terror, his own lips utter the vital admission 
needed and supply the only fitting climax for such a poem. 

The concluding book, as Epilogue, companions the opening book as 
Prologue. Its main office is to round out the tale. In supplementing 
its last occurrences, the original order is symmetrically followed in little. 
The Venetian traveller gives the town-talk, much as the three Roman 
citizens did, and provides the external report of the execution. The 
two lawyers appear again to furnish the social or institutional outcome 
and the professional glimpse of the suit for Pompilia's estate ; and the 
Augustinian friar stands in place of the Pope to pronounce the moral 
summing up in the extract from his sermon. The final words from 
the poet's own mouth turn again, as at the outset, upon the plan and 
purport of his art, and the consecration of his work to the poet who 
was his wife. " Ring " is linked to " ring," the " book " lying between 
in the transposed words of the titles of the first and last books, "The 
Ring and the Book " becoming " The Book and the Ring," and the 
significance of the name of the poem shaping it to the end. 

One other general trait of the work, which is characteristic of its 
evolutionary and social method, is especially ministered unto in the 
twelfth book. That trait is its historic quality. With Guide's cry in 
the ears, with the climax of the poem reached, this last book opens. 
Is the result that of anticlimax or redundancy? '' Here were the end," 
says the poet, "had anything an end." As nothing has an end, there 
is room here for one suggestion more to that effect, and relevantl}', too. 
An image of the fiery event resuscitated in the poem symbolizes this 
perpetual existency. The vivid outburst of Guido's deed is seen at its 
height, and then it is shown paling and dying gradually away in the 
vastness of the ages. The addition of the twelfth book is justified by 
this culminating stroke of art, revealing the central event of the poem 
as but an incident in the larger life of historic civilization. 

This historic quality is, of course, not such as usually marks the work 
of the professional historian. It depends little upon exact results or 
patient verification of evidence. In the poem dispassionateness as well 
as partisanship is distrusted, and stress is put on genuineness of char- 
acter as the criterion of merely relative truth. And yet a poem which 
is made to bear witness that human testimony is false and " fame and 
estimation words and wind," since it shows to the life how essential 



XXX IXTRODUCTORV ESSAY. 

to each man is his own character and peculiar point of view,"reveals 
more convincingly than any but the most modern histories the interde- 
pendence and necessary coherence of all points of view ; the continuous 
unity of the social life thence each human act emerges and whence it 
sinks, forever perpetuating its influence through oblivion ; and the end- 
less beauty of personal aspiration toward all that can be called "truth." 

As a whole it appears, then, that, unlike most poetic plots, with 
definitely isolated beginnings, middles, and ends, this plot seems to be 
composed of continuous intersecting unfoldings. as if in concentric 
orbits round a centre related to all these splits of ps\'GMcai action and 
influence, and having outside the whole an miaginative envelope of 
unexplored, indefinite space. 

Turning now — after this general survey of the structural design of 
the poem, first as projected by the poet in his prologue and then as 
wrought out by him in the sequence — to an examination of the char- 
acters created, it may be found that in these, too, the secret of the art 
with which they are portrayed consists not merely in their separate 
vitality but in their lifelike interrelations. 

The truth to life of the first three characters is apparently meant to 
be more typical than personal. Yet it is easy to see the individual 
within the class in either Half-Rome, The Other Half-Rome, or Ter- 
tium Quid ; and their double quality of generaHzed and individualized 
life is peculiarly well adapted to give the impression of a larger social 
atmosphere encompassing the central event, and to lead on to the more 
fully individualized characters of the central actors in whose persons 
the intensity of interest is condensed. 

The typical quality of the three Roman citizens is not abstract. It 
does not mar their humanity. Half-Rome buttonholes the cousin of 
the jackanapes who is too civil to his wife, and the reader feels the 
touch, too, and grows absorbed in the turn the gossip gives the story. 
He gathers from the whole account, however, not merely the estimate 
of the characters which the speaker conceives, but, also, from that, a 
cumulative estimate of the speaker's own character, and, thence, a still 
further estimate of the doubtful value of tjiis man's evidence. 

Listen next to The Other Half-Rome's version of the story ; and with 
whatever eagerness, acquired by the habit of following the plot of inci- 
dent, one may pounce upon the slight divergences in the facts between 
this and the preceding version, the interest in the plot of incident soon 
gives place to interest in the plot of character. The estimate of the 
characters peculiar to The Other Half- Rome's point of view first absorbs 
attention ; then it is perceived to throw light on his own character, and 
finally suspicion falls upon the value of his evidence. 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxxi 

Where shall the real truth be found then? is the question that now 
dominates the reader's mood. At this stage he is ready to rush greedily 
upon Tertium Quid's account. His hopes are cunningly fostered by 
the pretence of this third speaker that now the ''authoritative word" of 
'•' persons qualified to pronounce " will at last prevail above '*' this rab- 
ble's-brabble " of " reasonless unreasoning Rome." But no ; he is only 
tantalized more acutely by the spiritless equipoise of Tertium Quid. 
Thrown back now upon a trust in his own wits as the only guide, the 
reader passes the poet's probation toward wisdom, and is ripe to learn 
what the second group of characters — • the three actors in the tragedy — 
shall successively impart, and with more and more intimacy of each 
other, themselves, and the truth. 

Once having felt this threefold progressive illumination of the story, 
there is no end to the fascination of detailed comparison. Guide's, 
Caponsacchi's, and Pompilia's characters, as they appear in each man's 
eyes and in their own, are to be traced, contrasted, the investigation 
narrowed to a test by the character of each speaker as to what his 
special evidence on each point is worth, and crowned with a divination 
of how the whole coheres. 

All this complexity of interest results primarily from a perception of 
the characters of Half-Rome, The Other Half-Rome, and Tertium Quid. 
Half-Rome is seen to be so warped by one idea that any subject he 
considered would wear the hated color. He cannot see true any more 
than Othello could, and all his mental aspirations are subject to the 
clumsy obtuseness and despotic cruelty of a man suspicious of the 
woman nature, because it is foreign to his own. It is not so important, 
however, that certain external circumstances be gathered about him, — 
namely, that he is a jealous husband who is making the telling of this 
story to the cousin of the ''jackanapes '' an excuse to cause the fellow 
to fear him, — as it is that the character of the man enslaved to his 
prejudices be seen. 

The Other Half-Rome is swifter witted and more humane. He is 
too subtle and strategic himself not to revel in the finer powers of in- 
tuition and emotion. His nature has no distrust of the woman nature, 
but rather an instinctive attraction toward it. He is Violante's best 
defender. He excuses her first falsity, but seeing that she clears her 
conscience at Pompilia's expense, blames her for confessing the lie. 
Some acute inkling of the relativity of truth seems to move him to put 
loyalty to an essential truth beyond adherence to the external truth of 
fact. Criticism is his foible, however, and everybody gets a taste of 
his dissecting blade. Even Pompilia, his adoration, the saint with the 
allurement of a beautiful girl, does not escape disparagement for her 



xxxii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 

passivity. The " helpless, simple-sweet, or silly-sooth," he says, " how 
can she render service to the truth?" (805) The poor opinion he ex- 
presses of Pompilia's intellect and will is misleading, but natural to the 
shrewd man who underrates the high capacity of brain and nerve 
necessarily accompanying experienced goodness. Otherwise, he has 
so sympathetically assimilated Pompilia's version of the story that his 
account of her penetrates closer to the heart of the matter than that of 
any other of the outer circles of characters. His vivisection of Guido 
is particularly keen and profitable to observe ; and the measure of 
understanding he shows for Caponsacchi is not a little remarkable in 
view of his latent rivalry with one whom he regards as an ordinary lover. 

Again, with this speaker, the mere circumstance that he is a bachelor 
who is romantically partial to pretty women and " the side the others 
are down on," is not in itself so important to observe as that with all 
his cleverness he is not a master of his bias. 

Tertium Quid is obviously the man of pretence to social prominence 
and distinguished intellect. He is witty, graphic, and sophisticated ; 
a specialist in worldliness, which qualifies him to judge as an expert in 
the case ; but his deft reconstruction of its twists and turns feels its way. 
subserviently, after all, toward that neutral somewhat which will be ac- 
cepted as the " safe " view of the conservative class. The upshot of 
his specialistic investigation, in spite of the dexterity of its incidental 
episodes, is disappointing in making no point but the minor one against 
torture. Its main conclusion is equivocal because it has to steer its 
course between a disdain of '• plebs, the commonalty" and a supine 
regard for "quality" not compatible with the unity of humanity. The 
actual conclusion to be drawn is that horror of the " mob " is the main 
dependence to prove superiority over it. At.the impotent close of the 
deft harangue, when " Excellency " and " Highness " show themselves 
human enough to be bored by much talk to no purpose, they fare no 
better than "plebs" in Tertium Quid's eyes, and he styles them, be- 
tween his teeth, "the two idiots here." The reader is led to cap his 
conclus'rvn with another, remembering the gage offered at the start — 

"if I fail — 
Favored with such an audience, understand! — 
To set things right, whv. class me with the mob 
As understander of the mind of man ! " 

Here again, then, with Tertium Quid, as with the two other typical 
RomaiT^citizens. it is important not merely to perceive the character but 
judge f-^e pretensions, and, balancing the two, see how much the evi- 
dence ^ worth. 



rXTRODUCTORV ESSAY. xxxiii 

Flattering clouds of suftering and manly self-confidence half obscure 
Guide's genuine self upon his first appearance. A flood of daylight 
pours upon him on his second. To know the secret of his character, 
and lay the true stress upon its relation to the story, appeal must be 
made here, from the Count presumed innocent to Guido found guilty. 
Holding in abeyance, then, the first plea of Count Guido Franceschini, 
it may be compared better with his final utterances later, when nothing 
intervenes between the man and death. 

A peculiar interest attaches to Caponsacchi, because he alone of all 
the personages that revolve about the central tragedy suffers the tort- 
ures of a severe moral struggle. His soul is first awakened by Pom- 
pilia, whose sudden influence works a revolution in his character, and 
sows the seeds of a development only curtailed by his inevitable priestly 
bias. All the onlookers agree in describing him as a mixture of priest 
and courtly gallant, — vowed to the Church, yet a favorite in the social 
world. 

Under these circumstances it is hardly to be wondered at that no 
one, not even sympathetic Other Half-Rome, can believe in his entire 
innocence and self-disinterestedness in rendering aid to Pompilia. 
Sympathy for the outraged honor of Guido blinds Half-Rome to every 
other consideration ; but the rest of the world is more ready to condone 
the sin of the priest than to believe him guiltless. This widespread 
feeling is reflected in the paltering decision of the court, — not to exon- 
erate him, but to deal him a light punishment. What could world or 
law-court know of the powerful forces latent within the character of the 
worldling priest, or of the influence for good of a personality so intui- 
tively strong as that of the youthful Pompilia! Only when Caponsacchi 
comes to tell his own stcwy is the real truth of the matter discoverable. 
The vision of Pompilia with her '• beautiful sad strange smile " was his 
first true revelation ; her face became for him " God's own smile," and 
he realized there were greater possibilities in life and in religion than he 
had ever dreamed of. Henceforth the frivolous side of his life became 
utterly distasteful to him, and the perception of his duties as a priest 
deepened. Conscious that his awakening was due to his sudden i-ecog- 
nition in Pompilia of a purity of soul he had never before experienced, 
his trust in her was so complete that he at once saw through the dia- 
bolical plan of Guido to entrap Pompilia and himself. So strong a 
nature as his, once aroused to an understanding of the seriousness of 
duty, would be apt to verge toward fanaticism. He would confuse the 
duty to his earth-made vows with a larger divine duty, especially in an 
age when religious sentiment placed more emphasis upon the perform- 
ance of the letter of the vow than upon keeping the spirit of it intact. 



xxxiv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 

Only so can his hesitancy, when Pompilia appealed to him for aid, be 
explained. His struggle was threefold, and wavered between a human 
desire to help Pompilia, a desire to live up to the new ideal of duty 
born within him by Pompilia herself, and a desire truly to sacrifice him- 
self. This last, he concludes, can best be accomplished by withstanding 
the great wish of his heart to help Pompilia, — a conclusion which, com- 
bined with his desire to be true to his vows, causes him to decide to 
leave her in God's hands. Another visit to Pompilia makes him under- 
stand that he himself must be God's instrument. He accepts the charge 
somewhat in the spirit of Prometheus, who "freely sinned." His only 
sin. however, was against the external laws of the Church. He cherished 
faithfully the spirit of his vows, not only because he must be true to his 
new-born ideals, but because such action constituted the highest homage 
he could offer Pompilia. He dares hardly acknowledge even to himself 
his love for her, largely because he cannot throw off entirely the priestly 
attitude which takes for granted an antagonism between an earthly love 
and the love of the Church. Though he pictures the possibilities of 
a life outside the Church, and made sacred by her presence, he does 
not let himself recognize that in such love as existed between them 
there is a divine element transcending all earthly vows, and destined 
to have its fulfilment in eternity. Earth might have had such bliss in 
store for him : it is lost forever, and duty demands that he shall not 
even regret the loss. 

" So I from such communion pass content." 

But his heart asserts itself, and human anguish forces from him the cry, — 

" O great, just, good God! Miserable me! " 

He is indeed a Prometheus, but a Prometheus still in chains. 

His speech is a masterpiece of dramatic writing, reflecting to the 
life his complex feelings. Scorn for the lawyers, whom he scores merci- 
lessly for their miserable failure in the guardianship of Pompilia, wheTx 
he who might have been of use to her was facetiously adjudged a 
"merry" punishment for what they persisted in regarding a youthfvi] 
escapade ; loathing of Guido ; anguish at the news of Pompilia's death 
intensifying his love for her; but against any expression of which \\.\ 
strives fiercely, lest it might detract from the perfect sum of her purity •, 
— and underneath all these rending human passions, the struggle of 
the priest to maintain his priesthood unsullied. ' 

There was a law in force in the ancient Hindu drama, that no actcSr 
could come upon the stage before some reference had been made to 
him by actors already on the stage. The effectiveness of such a meth' od 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxxv 

Browning has certainly proved in " The Ring and the Book." The 
reader is in a fever-heat of expectation when Pompilia is finally intro- 
duced in her own person ; and that the poet has succeeded in making her 
not only fulfil expectation, but surprise us with her transcendent loveli- 
ness, is alone proof of his masterly genius. She has appeared, through 
the medium of the speakers, in the preceding monologues in the like- 
ness, at one extreme, of a light, frivolous, even depraved girl ; at the 
other, in that of a martyred saint, according as individual bias misun- 
derstands and hates her, or comprehends and reverentially loves her. 
Guide's brutal attitude toward her as his wife is too evident for his 
account of her to gain any credence whatever ; yet, in spite of himself, 
there are references to her in his speech which give glimpses of her 
true character, just as if her nature were so powerful a centre of truth 
that it must perforce shine through the foulest aspersions of her. 
Even Half-Rome's opinion of her does not appear to be based upon an 
overwhelming conviction of her guilt, but rather upon the determina- 
tion to uphold the rights of the husband at any cost. Did Half-Rome 
forget himself for the moment, when he presents so finely the picture 
of Pompilia trapped at Castelnuovo? 

•' Her defence? This. She woke, saw, sprang upright 
r the midst, and stood as terrible as truth." 

Such passages have been considered a lapse from Half-Rome into 
Browning. But if Half-Rome be conceived to base his arguments on 
prejudice, rather than conviction, it will be easy to imagine him carried 
away, for the moment, by the splendid pluck of Pompilia, and falling 
into this sudden show of sympathy. This is made all the more plausi- 
ble by the way he brings himself up with a round turn, — 

" But facts are facts, and flinch not ; stubborn things, 
And the question, how comes my purse 
r the poke of you? admits of no reply." 

If glimpses are caught, from time to time, of Pompilia as she really 
is, even from her enemies, it is equally true that her friends do not 
give an entire view of her character. We saw how The Other Half- 
Rome regarded her, so " silly-sooth " that she could hardly be expected 
to shed any light on the bare justice of the situation. It may be ques- 
tioned whether Caponsacchi recognized to the full the greatness of her 
character, although he had felt the influence of her personality, — one 
that convinced, not by argument, but by her presence, as Walt 
Whitman would say. He certainly did not understand, in their 
essence, the principles that guided her, or he would not have suffered 



xxxvi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 

her to languish a day longer than she need for help, while he settled 
upon the action best for his own soul. 

There is no moral struggle in Pompilia's short life, such as that in 
Caponsacchi's. Both were alike in the fact that up to a certain point 
in their lives their full consciousness was unawakened : hers slept, 
through innocence and ignorance ; his, in spite of knowledge, through 
lack of aspiration. She was rudely awakened by suffering; he by the 
sudden revelation of a possible ideal. Therefore, while for him, con- 
scious of his past failures, a struggle begins ; for her, conscious of no 
failure in her duty, which she had always followed according to her 
light, there simply continues duty according to the new light. Neither 
archbishop nor friendly " smiles and shakes of head " could weaken her 
conviction that, being estranged in soul from her husband, her atti- 
tude toward him was inevitable. No qualms of conscience trouble her 
as to her inalienable right to fly from him. That she submitted as 
long as she did, was only because no one could be found to aid her. 
And how quick and certain her defence of Caponsacchi. threatened by 
Guido, when he overtakes them at the Inn! As she thinks over it 
calmly afterwards, she makes no apology, but justifies her action as the 
voice of God. 

"' If I sinned so, — never obey voice more 
O' the Just and Terrible, who bids us ' Bear! ' 
Not — * Stand by ; bear to see my angels bearl ' " 

The gossip over her flight with Caponsacchi does not trouble her as 
it does him. He saved her in her great need ; the supposition that their 
motives for flight had any taint of impurity in them is too puerile to 
be given a thought, yet with the same sublime certainty of the right, 
characteristic of her, she acknowledges, at the end, her love for Capon- 
sacchi, and looks for its fulfilment in the future when marriage shall be 
an interpenetration of souls that know themselves into one. Having 
attained so great a good, she can wish none of the evil she has suffered 
undone. » She goes a step farther. Not only does she accept her own 
suffering for the sake of the final supreme good to herself, but she feels 
assured that good will fall at last to those who worked the evil. 

Of all the characters portrayed by Browning in this poem, Pompilia 
is the only one, not even excepting the good old Pope, who has abso- 
lutely clear vision. She stands as the embodiment of that higher law 
which works behind all narrow-minded conceptions of duty ; she grasps 
the relations of evil to good in the world, and her large charity makes 
room for even her arch-enemy in the healing shadow of God. Withal 
she is so human and lovable. Though her philosophy is profound, it 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxxvii 

breaks so spontaneously and simply from her lips that it does not 
give the impression of being the result of intellectual pondering, but is 
like the natural outflow of a mind that had reached a higher plane 
of consciousness than those about her. 

The sole point in which her feeling appears slightly to darken her 
perception is with regard to Caponsacchi, of whose moral struggle she 
does not seem to be aware, for she attributes to him the same intuitive 
vision possessed by herself. His own account and hers of his reply to 
her when she " called him to her and he came " is a striking example 
of this. He says, "It shall be when it can be." She makes him say 
simply, " I am yours." It is quite possible, however, that she knew his 
inmost soul better than he did himself, and caught its meaning rather 
than his words. Pompilia's conception of him is perhaps the true 
Caponsacchi, while in his account of himself we get Caponsacchi en- 
tangled in a mesh woven of inherited convention. May we not vent- 
ure to imagine that Pompilia's dying message to him at last set him 
free, and that, henceforth, he would acknowledge and accept a present 
and future for their two souls of love infinitely exalted, nor any longer 
look back upon an unrealized earthly love ? 

After the intense concentration of emotion in these two monologues, 
the speeches of the two lawyers furnish a relief that may be compared 
to the effect of a Shakespearian scene in which the " base mechanicals " 
figure. De Archangelis and Bottinius are not much more profound in 
their reasoning than Bottom the weaver, but their poverty in wisdom is 
bolstered up by an immense deal more of learning and an intellectual cun- 
ning in the use of it which produces at least a " swashing outside." To 
them a murder case is just so much grist for the legal mill. The desire to 
find the truth and have justice rendered is no part of their programme. 
The ambition of each is to gain his case and outwit his opponent by 
building up a defence on some legal quibble. There is not a more 
brilliant example of searching sarcasm in literature than in the portrayal 
of this brace of lawyers, hitting not only at these easily recognizable 
types, but at the institution of law itself, as at present constituted. 

The pettifogging soul of De Archangelis warms to the task of prov- 
ing a guilty man justified in his guilt. He is quite invincible when 
marshalling his forces of precedent, provided it first be admitted that 
citations of precedent constitute argument ; but, if driven to rely on his 
own reasoning powers for a point, he flounders pitifully. Yet we can- 
not altogether despise this representative of the law, because of his 
absorbing interest in his little son, whom he must have loved devotedly 
if there is any truth in the quaint little German saying, " Much-loved 
children have many names." One suspects that some of his inanities 



xxxviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 

in argument may have been due to his abstraction over the coming 
birthday feast. 

The egotism of De Archangelis pales before that of Bottinius pictur- 
ing himself, — the centre of admiring judges and audience, — while he 
paints with artist-hand a true picture of the sainted Pompilia. His 
method of presenting the truth is to imagine Pompilia and Caponsacchi 
guilty of lower depths of moral depravity than even Guido could have 
accused them of; and then to try to justify his interpretation of their 
actions by defending Pompilia on the ground that she committed small 
sins to save Guido from a greater sin ; and Caponsacchi on the ground 
that he followed out natural tendencies. Bottinius has the instincts of 
a criminal lawyer, and when given a case where the evidence proves too 
easily the innocence of his client, his ingenuity must find vent in argu- 
ing white, black, and then whitewashing the blackness he has himself 
created. At the end he has evidently convinced himself, if no one else, 
that all the calumnies he was only going to imagine true are indeed 
true, and that he has succeeded in glossing them over so as to make 
them appear virtues. Then, with an effrontery that reveals the depths 
of his moral obliquity, he declares that he has, through painting Pom- 
pilia's virtue, proved Guido's crime. Pompilia's confession almost up- 
sets his devious methods of proving her purity ; but he is equal to the 
occasion and declares it a lie which adds one more grace to her char- 
acter, — the grace of perjuring herself to save Guido's soul. 

The character of the " good old Pope " is somewhat difficult to ana- 
lyze, since he seems to be a composite of two historical popes. Innocent 
XI. and Innocent XII., combined with a special individuality, created 
for him by Browning, made up of mental traits quite consistent with the 
time, and others which belong to the nineteenth century, if not peculiarly 
to Browning himself. 

Taking him as we find him, sprung fully endowed from the brain of 
the poet, he is pre-eminently a man actuated by the most sincere desire 
to find the truth and deal out justice, and in his earnest dignity furnishes 
a refreshing contrast to the shallow lawyers. 

He is, however, human, and feels the necessity of assuring himself 
that the safety of his own soul will not be jeopardized by his decision 
to condemn to death Guido and his associates. He states a profound 
truth when he decides that God will look upon the sincerity of his inten- 
tion, even should he in his human ignorance make a mistake. 

There are no finer passages in the poem than those in which he ren- 
ders his judgments upon the various actors in the tragedy. With ter- 
rible keenness of vision he dissects Guido's motives, — his avarice, his 
deceit out of which all his crimes grew. Yet even here the fallibility 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxxix 

of the human mind asserts itself. Though he shows the most exquisite 
appreciation of Pompilia, and recognizes her intuitive perception of the 
liigher law, he does not quite realize whither this intuitive faculty car- 
ried her. He commends her for her submission to her husband until 
the higher duty of motherhood bade her rebel, evidently unconscious 
that she never acknowledged any obedience to Guido, but simply sub- 
mitted because circumstances forced her to do so. Pompilia, herself, is 
careful to make this plain when she says, — 

" Now understand here, by no means mistake ! 
Long ago had I tried to "leave that house." 

He passes over also her confession of love for Caponsacchi, which it 
seems hardly probable he would approve if he had noticed it, since he 
considered one of Caponsacchi's chief glories the withstanding of the 
temptation to love Pompilia. He also admires Caponsacchi for his 
" Championship of God, at first blush," when he sprang to rescue Pom- 
pilia. He is quite oblivious of the fact that Caponsacchi took some 
time to decide whether he would not be obeying the voice of God to 
more purpose if he did not rescue the " martyr-maiden." The enthusi- 
asm of the Pope for these two really blinds him a little to the realities 
of the case, and results in his admiring them both, especially for some- 
thing they did not do. The inconsistencies which may arise from a 
recognition of truth in conflict with obedience to convention is shown 
when the Pope, in spite of his admiration for Caponsacchi, would have 
him punished because he broke the laws of the Church. These are the 
touches which place the Pope along with the other characters of the 
book as a really dramatic portraiture, while his grief at tlte lust for gold 
he everywhere discovers suits well enough with the historical accounts 
of Innocent XII., whose energies were spent in trying to reform abuses 
growing out of the selfish scramble for wealth rife at that time. But 
when the Pope philosophizes upon the basis of his faith, upon evil and 
doubt, he takes a long leap forward. Going beyond that eighteenth cen- 
tury, which the poet makes him look forward to as an age of revivify- 
ing doubt destined to give birth to a new faith, he reveals in his own 
convictions what that new faith will become in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, namely, a belief in a personal revelation of divine love to every 
individual. 

There is a curious difference between Guido's first monologue and 
his second one. His character must necessarily appear in both. Why 
is it truer in the last? In both he assumes various plausible shapes, 
and lays claim to heroism, but reveals the skulking soul. When the 
two messengers enter, as earlier when he addressed his judges, his first 



xl INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 

impulse is to ingratiate himself by a flattery of rank that will serve to 
insinuate his own claim to social privilege. After he has heard why 
they come to him and what message they bring him from the Pope, 
then it is as if some outer bodily integument which he had himself sup- 
posed, until now, to be a veritable part of him, slipped away, and left 
his inner nature intact and able to betray itself more clearly. Guido"s 
truth to himself flares out, now that life must leave him, with a sudden 
fierce perception of the life still within him, that has made him what he 
was and now makes him strong to answer the Pope's sentence — " ' Be 
thou not!' bv "Thus I am!'" The best possible explanation of the 
criminal is — In my crime spoke my nature. His best possible justifi- 
cation for reading his own nature into all other men's natures is the 
warrant they themselves give him to do so. Half-Rome has substan- 
tiallv the same theory of society and marriage as that on which Guido 
based his life and justified his slaughter. So has Bottinius and Ter- 
tium Quid. Guido, in his first smooth, deferential monologue, rested his 
confidence in his safety on this plea : I am a loyal servant of Church 
and Law. a pillar of society ! "• Absolve thou me, law's mere execu- 
tant!" Through me bring in force again the wholesome household 
rule — 

•' Husbands once more God's representative, 
Wives like the typical Spouse once more, and Priests 
No longer men of Belial." 

In his last speech, this pretence of serving " public weal, which hangs 
to the law, which holds by the Church," having been knocked from 
under him by the stroke of his death-sentence, he falls back merely on 
his own nature. The stealthy cunning lashes out into unbridled feroc- 
ity. The tiger-cat that " whined before, and pried and tried and trod 
so gingerly " has done with useless wariness and openly attacks first 
the Church he served, and then the Civilization and Society for which 
he finds he risked his head. Capable for an instant, at least, of conceiv- 
ing " a careless courage as to consequences," and of exercising sincerely 
a curiosity that bids him turn over and over again the theories he acted 
on to see the true reason for his failure, the real Guido arouses a new 
interest. The character, supposed to be merely mean and tricky, shows 
an inherent self inside the mask. An element of grandeur appears in 
the hard consistency and implacable heart with which this self-styled 
victim of Society arraigns the judgment he falls beneath. If his help- 
lessness stir a thrill of pathos finally, the art of the poet will have fin- 
ished its vital reconstruction and redeemed the villain in Guido to 
human brotherliness. 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xli 

Nobles and men of power make common cause, against the unconsid- 
ered mass of men, to gain unharmed their pleasure. This is one of 
Guide's first principles. " Manly men " who own a wife hold their 
right "with tooth and nail." This is another of Guide's first princi- 
ples. They suffice to show him his innocence. Right as an abstract 
conception or a moral test has not occurred to him. A right as a privi- 
lege exercised by whosoever has title, wealth, or strength, he under- 
stands and illustrates in the story of Felice. There were Popes then, 
too, he maintains; not such as this one. "Why do things change? 
Wherefore is Rome un-Romed?" Guido accuses Society of moral 
progress, without knowing what moral progress means, and condemns 
it, like any other grumbler who suffers from a change, for the newness 
of its virtue. He considers it a pretence, of course, — a fall from grace 
in Gospel and in Law, — and blames himself merely for the blunder of 
calculating that their action would be consistent. 

To this nature, arrogating his time-honored right to rule by force or 
guile those he counts his creatures, Pompilia speaks for the new indi- 
vidual right the one effective word. The leaven of her "self-posses- 
sion to the uttermost" is shown at its work in Guido's account of her 
as the stumbling-block in his path. Not Caponsacchi himself has 
gained so adequate a conception as Guido has of Pompilia's forceless 
strength. 

Guido's ugly picture of his relations toward his son supplies the right 
contrast to make the beauty of Pompilia's motherliness more convinc- 
ing. His notion of fatherhood falls before her influence as fell his 
notions of citizenship and husbandhood. The contrast is not merely 
pointed between recreant fatherhood and noble motherliness : it sym- 
bolizes the good and evil social influences this wife and husband repre- 
sent. Of this Guido is unaware, but he lays his defeat to Pompilia; 
and through her, by means of the push of her influence upon him, on 
Caponsacchi, on the Pope, and on the Pope's sentence, his whole con- 
ception of life begins at last to quake. 

At the climax of the poem, through the revelation of Guido's nature, 
the two forces stand in open opposition. If something come now to 
check Guide's voluble rhetoric, shrivel through the human testimony 
and disclose the human fact, if the Pope's sentence — Pompilia's instru- 
ment — complete the moral battle-shock between the two, and hurl 
Guido on from the perception of blunder to a feeling of need, one cry 
of trust in the strength of human goodness will be enough to proclaim 
its triumph over human evil. It comes, — 

"God, . . . 
Pompilia. will you let them murder me?" 



xlu INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 

In characterizing Guido thus, the poet has brought the entire plot of 
tragic incident, interwoven character, and dramatically expressed moral 
motive to a focus. 

The style of "The Ring and the Book" is singularly clear, in spite 
of the colloquialisms, archaisms, historical and classical allusions, and 
Latin phrases that abound. If they were judged as belonging to the 
whole poem, and that were considered as if it were a single subjective 
utterance, they might make it seem uncouth. But if they be referred to 
their appropriate places in the course of the talk of the various characters, 
whose monologues constitute the story, they will readily reveal their fit- 
ness in a work that blends the traits of poem, drama, and novel. Collo- 
quialisms, for instance, in the speech of such worldly townsmen as are 
here presented, obviously belong to any vital transcription of everyday 
talk. It may be a question how far a modern poet is justified in counting 
upon the use of obsolete and archaic English words to breathe an Italian 
seventeenth -century aroma. However that may be, it is evidently an 
intention that accounts for them. Such historical allusions as appear in 
the frequent mention of Molinism seem intended, also, to add their minute 
touch to the effect of a historical environment about this particular event 
in the life of Rome, which Browning sought to give, as already indicated, 
by placing an outer circle of characters about his central group. The 
classical allusions mainly appear in the monologues of speakers with 
some pretence to the pagan scholarship Italy had loved from the days 
of the Renaissance. It is amusing to see Half-Rome ape this gentle- 
manly habit and leave a blank in his speech, through an attempt to deco- 
rate it with still another pagan god whose name fails him. Bottinius 
and Guido are more apt. The recurrence of favorite allusions perhaps 
marks a literary custom of the time, which Browning's reading had 
noted. The pomp of Latin to which their profession obliges the law- 
yers is so whimsical, as well as fitting, that finding fault with it is grace- 
less criticism, the more so, since the poet has made his base professionals 
give a humorous free-hand English version which, while it doubly de- 
lights the Latinist. does not leave the English reader in the dark. 

Lyric outbursts of exquisite beauty occur only where the mood befits 
them, when the speaker is noble in character and stirred to a high devo- 
tion. The dedicatory lines to "' Lyric Love." passages put in Caponsac- 
chi's mouth, and much of Pompilia"s utterance, move to this smoother 
music. Again, in Guido's second monologue, there is a savage directness 
almost lurid with dramatic force, or there is an impulsive throbbing 
delicacy in Caponsacchi's outflow, or on the Pope's lips a brooding 
sereneness. Evervwhere the fluent diversity is subject to the beck of 
the dramatic wand. 



i 



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xliii 

The work as a whole has been accused of inordinate length. Closer 
study of it may show that every word is needed for the proper elabora- 
tion of the characters. It has been claimed, too, that some one or 
other of the characters might be spared, but even after those to spare 
had been agreed upon, a fuller consideration might reveal that all, with- 
out exception, fall into the places intended for them, aj:id that on their 
interlacing support grows the design which distinguishes the poem. 

Charlotte Porter. 
Helen A. Clarke. 
May II, 1897. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



The Ring and the Book. Vol. I., Nov. 1868; Vol. II., Dec. 1868; 
Vol. III., Jan. 1869; Vol. IV., Feb. 1869. Three books in each 
volume. London : Smith & Elder. 1868-69. 

Criticism. 

Buchanan, Robert. Master Spirits, chap, ix., "Browning's Master- 
apiece," pp. 89-109. London: Henry S. King & Co. 1873. (See 

"Athenaeum," below.) 
Burt, Mary E. Browning's Women, chap, viii., pp. 1 13-1 18. Chicago : 

Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1887. 
Corson, Hiram. Introduction to Browning. Passages in chap. ii. on 

Personality in The Ring and the Book, especially pp. 53-55. Boston : 

D. C. Heath & Co. 1886. 
. Primer of English Verse. Passage on Blank Verse of 

Ring and Book, pp. 224-225. Boston: Ginn & Co. 1892. 
Dawson, W. J. The Makers of Modern English, chap, xxxi., pp. 318- 

322. New York : Thomas Whittaker. 1890. 
^Hodell, Charles W. The Ring and the Book: Its Moral Spirit and 

Motive, pp. 1-71. [Ithaca, Cornell University. Pamphlet, privately 

printed.] 1894. 
Oliphant, Mrs. English Literature of the Victorian Age. Two vols. 

Vol. I., pp. 233-235. London: Percival & Co. 1892. 
Orr, Mrs. Sutherland. Life and Letters of Robert Browning. Two 

vols. Passage on Mrs. Browning's relation to Pompilia. Vol. II., 

pp. 408-411. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1891. 
Sharpe, William. Life of Robert Browning. Passage in chap, xi., pp. 

113-127. London: Walter Scott. 1890. 
Stedman, Edmund C. Victorian Poets, chap, ix., pp. 334-336. Bos- 
ton : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1875. 
Symons, Arthur. Introduction to Study of Browning. Passage in 

section 17, pp. 131-149. London: Cassell & Co. 1887. 

xlv 



xlvi BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Periodicals . 

Athenaeum [Reviews]. R. Buchanan. (Same revised in "Master 

Spirits.'") Dec. 26, 1868. pp. 875-876. March 20, 1869. pp. 399- 

400. 
Atlantic Monthly [Rev.]. Feb. 1869. pp. 256-259. 
Chambers' Journal [Rev.]. Vol. 46. July 24, 1869. pp. 473-476. 
Christian Examiner [Rev.]. J. W. Chadwick. Vol. 86. (New 

Series 7). March, 1869. pp. 295-315. 
Dublin Review [Rev.]. Vol. 13, New Series. 1869. pp. 48-62. 
Edinburgh Review [Rev.]. Vol. 130. July, 1869. pp. 164-186. 
Fortnightly Review [Rev.]. John Morley. Vol. XI. March. 1869. 

pp. 231-343. 
Gentleman's Magazine. James Thomson. Vol. 251. Dec. 1881. 

pp. 682-695. [Cited in Introductory Essay of present volume. See 

p. v.] 
Macmillan's Magazine [Rev.]. J. A. Symonds. Vol. 19. Jan. 

1869. pp. 258-262. And J. R. Mozley. April, 1869. pp. 544-552. 
Nation [Rev.]. J. R. Dennett. Vol. 8. Feb. 1869. pp. 135, 136. 
North American Review [Rev.]. E. J. Cutler. Vol. 109. July, 

1869. pp. 279-283. 
North British Review [Rev.]. Vol. 51. 1870. pp. 97-106. 
Poet-lore. Ring and the Book Symposium : Caponsacchi, Henry G. 

Spaulding ; Pompilia, Alice Kent Robertson ; The Pope, Charles C. 

Shackford ; Some of the teachings of The Ring and the Book, F. B. 

Hornbrooke. Vol. I. June, and July, 1889. pp. 263-273 and 309- 

320. 
Quarterly Review [Rev.]. Vol.126. 1869. pp. 328-359. 
St. James' Magazine [Rev.]. Vol. 23. 1869. pp. 460-464. 
St. Paul's Magazine. E. J. Hasell. Vol. 7. pp. 377-397- Same 

article, Eclectic Magazine. Vol. 76. April, 1871. pp. 400-412, 

and Littell's Living Age. Vol. 108. pp. 771-783- 
Tinsley's Magazine [Rev.]. W. B. Vol. 3. Dec. 1868. pp. 665- 

674. 




Cui tutta J a Caufa Crimin ala 
Contro 

Qjuiaol/rancofcninL Jl/o&Me. 
jlretlno^ e^ juoi'Suayri/ JlatL 
^attLmorlrcinJloma i/ai^a., 

C/j/jrnno con la cLec^/Ia^(?ne^aitr4 
Oi/a^o ai ^orca, 

^Omana JfomiddiorurrL 

tOisputatur an ctaKandoynariL 
/^^/T^^ ffcctmreyj>iorcm 



(Reduced facsimile of Title-page of Report of the Trial of Guido Franceschini.) 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 



1868-9. 

[Book I. places the plan of the poem before the reader, and shows how the pur- 
pose of the poet is to transmute by the intermingling of fancy with crude fact, a dry 
record of events into a work of art, and thereby gain a more universal truth than 
lies in the fact alone. The finished product of art is symbolized as the Ring ; the 
crude fact is found in the old yellow Book from which first a bare sketch of the 
story is given. Next, the poet sketches the story as he imagines it after his fancy 
has clothed the characters with living objective personality. This is symbolized as 
the ring with the alloy of fancy added that it may be fashioned into shape. Still it 
needs the final spirt of acid to carry off the alloy, leaving only the refashioned 
truth. This will be accomplished by bringing all the characters on the scene to 
tell their own stories. The poet himself will disappear, but the effects of his fancy 
will be revealed in the fashioning of the characters. Thus to the truth of fact is 
added the vitalizing truth of art.] 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Do you see this Ring? ^ 

'T is Rome-work, made to match 
(By Castellani's imitative craft ^) 
Etrurian circlets found, some liappy morn, 
After a dropping April ; found alive 

Spark-like 'mid unearthed slope-side figtree-roots 5 

That roof old tombs at Chiusi : ^ soft, you see. 
Yet crisp as jewel-cutting. There 's one trick, 

1 Mrs. Browning owned such a ring. After and used by ancient workers in very pure 

her death the poet always wore it on his gold, and was successful in reproducing 
watch-chain. It is now in the possession of many antique effects, 
their son. 3 Chiusi : the ancient Clusium of Lars 

- Imitative craft : the elder Castellani Porsenna, capital of Etruria, 88 miles from 

Fortunato Piso (d. 1865), founder of the house Florence. To the east of the modern city is 

of Roman jewellers and antiquarians of that a slope called the Jewellers' Field {Catiipo 

name, opened a studio in 1826, about the degli Ore/ici) from the relics brought to light 

same time that so many antique jewels were there, rarely as the produce of the tombs or 

unearthed in Etruria. He turned his atten- of systematic search, but of accidental dis- 

tion especially to the rediscovery of the covery, especially after heavy rains, 
chemical and mechanical processes known 
B I 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

(Craftsmen instruct me) one approved device 

And but one, fits such slivers of pure gold 

As this was, — such mere oozings from the mine, lo 

Virgin as oval tawny pendent tear 

At beehive-edge when ripened combs overflow, — 

To bear the file's tooth and the hammer's tap : 

Since hammer needs must widen out the round. 

And file emboss it fine with lily-flowers, 15 

Ere the stuff grow a ring-thing right to wear. 

That trick is, the artificer melts up wax 

With honey, so to speak ; he mingles gold 

With gold's alloy, and, duly tempering both, 

Effects a manageable mass, then works : 20 

But his work ended, once the thing a ring, 

Oh, there 's repristinationl^ Just a spirt 

O' the proper fiery acid o'er its face. 

And forth the alloy unfastened flies in fume ; 

While, self-sufficient now. the shape remains, 25 

The rondure brave, the lilied loveliness. 

Gold as it was, is, shall be evermore : 

Prime nature with an added artistry — 

No carat lost, and you have gained a ring. 

What of it ? 'T is a figure, a symbol, say ; 30 

A thing's sign : now for the thing signified.i__^ 

Do you see this square old yellow Book,^ I toss 

r the air. and catch again, and twirl about 

By the crumpled vellum covers, — ^pure crude fact 

Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard. 35 

And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since? 

Examine it yourselves! I found this book. 

Gave a lira for it, eightpence English just, 

(Mark the predestination!) when a Hand. 

Always above my shoulder, pushed me once, 40 

One day still fierce 'mid many a day struck calm, 

Across a Square in Florence, crammed with booths. 

Buzzing and blaze, noontide and market-time. 

Toward Baccio's marble,^ — ay, the basement-ledge 

O' the pedestal where sits and menaces 45 

John of the Black Bands with the upright spear, 

'Twixt palace and church, — Riccardi where they lived. 

His race, and San Lorenzo where thev lie. 



' Repristination : restoration to its earlier delle Bande Nere (John of the Black Bands, 

nature. father of Cosimo de' Medici) , by Eaccio Bandi- 

2 Book : the original is now in the Library nelli, in the Piazza San Lorenzo, between the 

of Balliol College, Oxford. Palazzo Riccardi (the palace of the Medici) 

' Baccio's marble : the statue of Giovanni and the church of San Lorenzo. 




PALAZZO RICCARDI, FLORENCE. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 3 

This book, — precisely on that palace-step 

Which, meant for lounging knaves o' the Medici, 50 

Now serves re-\#nders to display their ware, — 

'Mongst odds and ends of ravage, picture-frames 

White through the worn gilt, mirror-sconces chipped, 

Bronze angel-heads once knobs attached to chests, 

(Handled when ancient dames chose forth brocade) 55 

Modern chalk drawings, studies from the nude. 

Samples of stone, jet, breccia,^ porphyry 

Polished and rough, sundry amazing busts 

In baked earth, (broken. Providence be praised!) 

A wreck of tapestry, proudly-proposed web 60 

When reds and blues were^d'&ecl red and blue, 

Now offered as a mat to save bare feet 

(Since carpets constitute a cruel cost) 

Treading the chill scagliola - bedward : then 

A pile of brown-etched prints, two crazie ^ each, 65 

Stopped by a conch a-top from fluttering forth 

— Sowing the Square with works of one and the same 

Master, the imaginative Sienese * 

Great in the scenic backgrounds — (name and fame 

None of you know, nor does he fare the worse :) 70 

From these . . . Oh, with a Lionard going cheap 

If it should prove, as promised, that Joconde ^ 

Whereof a copy contents the Louvre ! — these 

I picked this book from. Five compeers in flank 

Stood left and right of it as tempting more — 75 

A dogseared Spicilegium.^ the fond tale 

O' the Frail One of the Flower, by young Dumas," 

Vulgarized Horace for the use of schools, 

The Life, Death, Miracles of Saint Somebody, 

Saint Somebody Else, his Miracles, Death and Life, — 80 

With this, one glance at the lettered back of which. 

And '' Stall! '■" cried I : a lira made it mine. 

Here it is, this I toss and take again; 

Small-quarto size, part print part manuscript : 

A book in shape but, really, pure crude fact 85 

Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard, 

And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since. 

Give it me back! The thing 's restorative 

r the touch and sight. 

1 5>-tfC«a .• bits of stone from broken walls. Gioconda, by Leonardo da Vinci, in the 

* Scagliola : marble or stone flooring. Louvre. 

' Two crazie : about i\d. " Spicilegiii7ii : a book of selections made 

* The imaginative Sienese : AdemoUo from the best writers. 

(seel. 364). ' T/ie Frail One of the Flower: La 

^Joconde: the portrait of Mona Lisa Dame aux Camellias. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

That memorable day, 
(June was the month, Lorenzo named the Square) go 

I leaned a little and overlooked my^rize 
By the low railing round the fountain-source 
Close to the statue, where a step descends : 
While clinked the cans of copper, as stooped and rose 
Thick-ankled girls who brimmed them, and made place 95 
For marketmen glad to pitch basket down. 
Dip a broad melon-leaf that holds the wet, 
And whisk their faded fresh. And on I read 
Presently, though my path grew perilous 

Between the outspread straw-work, piles of plait 100 

Soon to be flapping, each o'er two black eyes 
And swathe of Tuscan hair, on festas ^ fine : 
Through fire-irons, tribes of tongs, shovels in sheaves, 
Skeleton bedsteads, wardrobe-drawers agape. 
Rows of tall slim brass lamps with dangling gear, — 105 

And worse, cast clothes a-sweetening in the sun : 
None of them took my eye from off my prize. 
Still read I on, from written title-page 
To \\Titten index, on, through street and street, 
At the Strozzi, at the Pillar, at the Bridge ; no 

Till, by the time I stood at home again 
In Casa Guidi by Felice Church, 
Under the doorway where the black begins 
With the first stone-slab of the staircase cold, 
1 had mastered the contents, knew the whole truth 115 

Gathered together, bound up in this book, 
Print three-fifths, written supplement the rest. 
" Romana Hgjnicidio7-tun "' — nay. 
Better translate — ''A Roman murder-case : 
Position of the entire criminal cause 120 

Of Guido Franceschini, nobleman. 
With certain Four the cutthroats in his pay. 
Tried, all five, and found guilty and put to death 
By heading or hanging as befitted ranks. 

At Rome on February Twenty Two, 125 

Since our salvation Sixteen Ninety Eight : 
Wherein it is disputed if, and when. 
Husbands may kill adulterous wives, yet 'scape 
The customary forfeit." 

Word for word, 
So ran the title-page : murder, or else 130 

Legitimate punishment of the other crime. 
Accounted murder by mistake, ^ — -just that 

' Festas : feast days. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 5 

And no more, in a Latin cramp enough 

When the law had her eloquence to launch, 

But interfilleted with Italian streaks 135 

When testimony stooped to mother-tongue, — 

That, was this old square yellow book about. 

Now, as the ingot, ere the ring was forged. 

Lay gold, (beseech you, hold that figure fast!) 

So, in this book lay absolutely truth, 140 

Fanciless fact, the documents indeed, 

Primary lawyer-pleadings for, against. 

The aforesaid Five ; real summed-up circumstance 

Adduced in proof of these on either side. 

Put forth and printed, as the practice was, 145 

At Rome, in the Apostolic Chamber's type, 

And so submitted to the eye o' the Court 

Presided over by His Reverence 

Rome's Governor and Criminal Judge, — the trial 

Itself, to all intents, being then as now 150 

Here in the book and nowise out of it ; 

Seeing, there properly was no judgment-bar, 

No bringing of accuser and accused. 

And whoso judged both parties, face to face , 

Before some court, as we conceive of courts. 155 

There was a Hall of Justice ; that came last : 

For Justice had a chamber by the hall 

Where she took evidence first, summed up the -same, 

Then sent accuser and accused alike. 

In person of the advocate of each, 160 

To weigh its worth, thereby arrange, array 

The battle. 'T was the so-styled Fisc ^ began, 

Pleaded (and since he only spoke in print 

The printed voice of him lives now as then) 

The public Prosecutor — '* Murder's proved ; 165 

With five . . . what we call qualities of bad. 

Worse, worst, and yet worse still, and still worse yet ; 

Crest over crest crowning the cockatrice. 

That beggar hell's regalia to enrich 

Count Guido Franceschini : punish him!'' 170 

Thus was the paper put before the court 

In the next stage, (no noisy work at all,) 

To study at ease. In due time like reply 

Came from the so-styled Patron ojjLlie Poor, 

Official mouthpiece of the five accused 175 

Too poor to fee a better, — Guido's luck 

Or else his fellows', — which, I hardly know. — 

^ Fisc : i.e. Counsel for the Treasury, or Public Prosecutor. 



6 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

An outbreak as of wonder at the world, 

A fury-tit of outraged innocence, 

A passion of betrayed simplicity : 1 80 

" Punish Count Guido? For what crime, what hint 

O' the color of a crime, inform us first ! 

Reward him rather! Recognize, we say, 

In the deed done, a righteous judgment dealt! 

All conscience and all courage, — there's our Count 185 

Charactered in a word ; and, what 's more strange, 

He had companionship in privilege, 

Found four courageous conscientious friends : 

Absolve, applaud all five, as props of law, 

Sustainers of society! — perchance 190 

A trifle over-hasty with the hand 

To hold lier tottering ark, had tumbled else ; 

But that 's a splendid fault whereat we wink. 

Wishing your cold correctness sparkled so ! " 

Thus paper second followed paper first, 195 

Thus did the two join issue — nay, the four. 

Each pleader having an adjunct. ''True, he killed 

— So to speak — in a certain sort — his wife. 

But laudably, since thus it happed! " quoth one : 

Whereat, more witness and the case postponed. 200 

" Thus it happed not, since thus he did the deed. 

And proved himself thereby portentousest 

Of cutthroats and a prodigy of crime. 

As the woman that he slaughtered was a saint, 

Martyr and miracle! "' quoth the other to match : 205 

Again, more witness, and the case postponed. 

" A miracle, ay — of Just and impudence ; ^ 

Hear my new reasons! " interposed the first : 

" — Coupled with more of mine!" pursued his peer. 

" Beside, the precedents, the authorities! " 210 

From both at once a cry with an echo, that! 

That was a firebrand at each fox's tail 

Unleashed in a cornfield : soon spread flare enough. 

As hurtled thither and there heaped themselves 

From earth's four corners, all authority 215 

And precedent for putting wives to death. 

Or letting wives live, sinful as they seem. 

How legislated, now, in this respect, 

Solon and his Athenians ? ^ Quote the code 

Of Romulus and Rome ! - Justinian-^ speak! 220 

' Solon, etc. : Solon's laws about women founder of Rome, as given by Plutarch, for- 

" were of the strangest," says Plutarch, for bade a wife to leave her husband, but granted 

death, heavy fines, and small fines were all a husband power to turn off a wife for coun- 

permissible penalties in cases of adultery. terfeiting his keys, or for adultery. 

- Code of Romulus : the code of the ^ yustnu'aii : the Roman emperor (530- 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 7 

Nor modern Baldo ^ Bartolo - be dumb! 

The Roman voice was potent, plentiful ; 

Cornelia de Sicariis ^ hurried to help 

Fo/npeia de Parricidiis ; Julia de 

Something-or-other jostled Lex this-and-that ; 225 

King Solomon confirmed Apostle Paul : * 

That nice decision of Dolabella, ^ eh ? 

That pregnant instance of Theodoric,'' oh! 

Down to that choice example /Elian" gives 

(An instance I lind much insisted on) 230 

Of the elephant who, brute-beast though he were, 

Yet understood and punished on the spot 

His master's naughty spouse and faithless friend ; 

A true tale which has editied each child. 

Much more shall flourish favored by our court ! 235 

Pages of proof this way, and that way proof. 

And always — once again the case postponed. 

Thus wrangled, brangled, jangled they a month, 

— Only on paper, pleadings all in print. 

Nor ever was, except i' the brains of men, 240 

More noise by word of mouth than you hear now — 

Till the court cut all short with " Judged, your cause. 

Receive our sentence! Praise God! We pronounce 

Count Guido devilish and damnable : 

His wife Pompilia m thought, word and deed, 245 

Was perfect pure, he murdered her for that : 

As for the Four who helped the One, all Five — 

Why, let employer and hirelings share alike 

In guilt and guilt's reward, the death their due! " 

So was the trial at end, do you suppose? 250 

" Guilty you find him, death you doom him to ? 

Av, were not Guido, more than needs, a priest. 

Priest and to spare! '■" — this was a shot reserved ; 

I learn this from epistles which begin 

Here where the print ends, — see the pen and ink 255 

564) upon whose Pandects, 529-533, later ^ Solomon confirmed Paul : Ecc. vii. 25; 

E\iropean law was based. i Cor. vii. 39, xi. 3, 9; Rom. vii. 2. 

1 Baldo : an eminent professor of civil law, " Decision of Dolabella : see viii. 913. 

also of canon law, born in 1327. ^ Instance of Theodoric : the Ostrogoth, 

-Bartolo: an erudite Italian jurist (1313- in letters (Varias Epistolae) written for him 

1356) associated with the Emperor Charles V. by Cassiodorus: " For even brute beasts vin- 

in codifying laws. To him is attributed the dicate their conjugal rights by force; how 

" Bulle d' Or," the charter of the German much more man who is so deeply dishonored," 

constitution. etc. 

^ Cornelia de Sicariis, Poinpeia de Par- ' .^lian : " De Animalium Natura," xi. 

ricidiis : the titles of Roman laws dealing 15. 
with homicide and adultery. 



8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Of the advocate, the ready at a pinch ! — 

" My client boasts the clerkly privilege, 

Has taken minor orders many enough, 

Shows still sulificient chrism upon his pate 

To neutralize a blood-stain : presbyter^ 260 

PriniCE tonsiircE, snbdiacotms, 

Soferdos, so he slips from underneath 

Your power, the temporal, slides inside the robe 

Of mother Church : to her we make appeal 

By the Pope, the Church's head ! " 

A parlous plea, 265 

Put in with noticeable effect, it seems ; 
" Since straight," — resumes the zealous orator. 
Making a friend acquainted with the facts, — 
",Once the word 'clericality " let fall. 

Procedure stopped and freer breath was drawn 270 

By all considerate and responsible Rome." 
Quality took the decent part, of course ; 
Held by the husband, who was noble too : 
Or, for the matter of that, a churl would side 
With too-refined susceptibility, 275 

And honor which, tender in the extreme. 
Stung to the quick, must roughly right itself 
At all risks, not sit still and whine for law 
As a Jew would, if you squeezed him to the wall. 
Brisk-trotting through the Ghetto.- Na}', it seems, 280 

Even the Emperor's Envoy had his say 
To say on the subject ; might not see, unmoved, 
Civility menaced throughout Christendom 
By too harsh measure dealt her champion here. 
Lastly, what made all safe, the Pope was kind, . 285 

From his youth up, reluctant to take life. 
If mercy might be just and yet show grace ; 
Much more unlikely then, in extreme age, 
To take a life the general sense bade spare. 
'T was plain that Guido would go scatheless yet. 290 

But human promise, oh, how short of shine! 
How topple down the piles of hope we rear! 
How history proves . . . nay, read Herodotus!^ 

' Presbyter, etc. : the names of successive they are sufficient to entitle him to appeal to 

orders in the Roman Church, of which the the Pope, as head of the Church. 
minor ones can be assumed without causing - Ghetto : the jew.s' quarter of the city, 

the holder to cease to be a layman; thus (a ^ Herodotus : e.g. the stories of Croesus or 

point of importance in Count Guido's case) of Xerxes, 
they do not prevent him from marrying, yet 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 9 

Suddenly starting from a nap, as it were, 

A dog-sleep with one shut, one open orb. 295 

Cried the Pope's ^ great self, — Innocent by name 
And nature too, and eighty-six years old, 
Antoijio Pignatelli of Naples, Pope ' 
Who had trod many lands, known many deeds, 
Probed many hearts, beginning with his own, 300 

. And BOW was far in readiness for God, — 
'T was he who first bade leave those souls in peace, 
Those Jansenists, re-nicknamed Molinists,'^ 
('Gainst whom the cl-y went, like a frowsy tune. 
Tickling men's ears — the sect for a quarter of an hour 305 ' 
r the teeth of the world which, clown-like, Im-es to chew 
Be it but a straw 'twixt work and whistling-while, 
Taste some vituperation, bite away, 
Whether at marjoram-sprig or garlic-clove, 
Aught it may sport with, spoil, and thea spit forth) 310 

"Leave them alone," bade he, "those Molinists! 
Who may have other light than we perceive. 
Or why is it the w'hole world hates them thus? " 
Also he peeled off that last scandal-rag 

Of Nepotism •^; and so observed the poor 315 

That men would merrily say, '• Halt, deaf and blind, 
Who feed on fat things, leave the masters self 
To gather up the fragments of his feast. 
These be the nephews of Pope Innocent! — 
His own meal costs but five carlines ^ a day, 320 

Poor-priest's allowance, for he claims no more." 
— He cried of a sudden, this great good old Pope, 
When they appealed in last resort to him, 
'• I have mastered the whole matter : I nothing doubt. 
Though Guido stood forth priest from head to heel, 325 

Instead of as alleged, a piece of one, — 
And further, were he, from the tonsured scalp 
To the sandaled sole of him, my son and Christ's, 
Instead of touching us by finger-tip 

As you assert, and pressing up so close 330 

Only to set a blood-smutch on our robe, — 
I and Christ would renounce all right in him. 
Am I not Pope, and presently to die. 
And busied how to render my account, 

1 The Pope : Innocent XII., pope from was declared heretical by the heads of the 

1691-1700. Church. Allusions to the orthodox dislike or 

- Molinists : followers of Miguel MolinoS, dread of Molinism at this time recur frequently 

a Spaniard, who published at Rome in 1675 a in this poem. 

work of mystical or "quietistic" theology, '^Nepotism : favoritism to relations. 

entitled the Guida Spirittiale or Spiritual * Carlines : a small silver coin, worth 

Guide, which attracted much attention, but about twopence. 



lo THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And shall I wait a day ere I decide 335 

On doing or not doing justice here ? 
Cut olT his head to-morrow by this time, 
Hang up his four mates, two on either hand, 
And end one business more ! '' 

So said, so done — 
Rather so writ, for the old Pope bade this. 340 

1 find, with his particular chirograph, 
His own no such infirm hand. Friday night ; 
And next day, February Twenty Two, 
Since our salvation Sixteen Ninety Eight. • 

— Not at the proper head-and-hanging-place 34.5 

On bridge-foot close by Castle Angelo, 
Where custom somewhat staled the spectacle. 
('T was not so well i' the way of Rome, beside, 
The noble Rome, the Rome of Guido's rank) 
But at the city's newer gayer end. — 350 

The cavalcading promenading place 
Beside the gate and opposite the church 
Under the Pincian gardens green with Spring. 
■"Neath the obelisk ^ "twixt the fountains in the Square. 
Did Guido and his fellows find their fate. 355 

All Rome for witness, and — my writer adds — 
Remonstrant in its universal grief. 
Since Guido had the suffrage of all Rome. 

This is the bookful ; thus far take the truth. 

The untempered gold, the fact untampered with, 360 

The mere^TTng-TiTetal ere the ring be made! 

And what has hitherto come of it? Who preserves 

The memory of this Guido. and his wife 

Pompilia, more than Ademollo's name, 

The etcher of those prints, two crazie each. 365 

Saved by a stone from snowing broad the Square 

With scenic backgrounds? Was this truth of force? 

Able to take its own part as truth should. 

Sufficient, self-sustaining? Why. if so — 

Yonder 's a fire, into it goes my book, 370 

As who shall say me nay, and what the loss? 

You know the tale already : I may ask. 

Rather than think to tell you, more thereof, — 

Ask you not merely who were he and she. 

Husband and wife, what manner of mankind, 375 

1 Obelisk : brought from Egypt by Augiis- by Pope Sixtus V. in 1589, and set up in the 
tus, and placed in the Circus Maximus, Piazza del Popolo, below the Monte Pincio. 
whence, having fallen down, it was removed 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. ii 

But how you hold concerning this and that 

Other yet-unnamed actor in the piece. 

The young frank handsome courtly Canon, now, 

The priest, declared the lover of the wife, 

He who, no question, did elope with her, 380 

For certain bring the tragedy about, 

Giuseppe Caponsacchi ; — his strange course 

r the matter, was it right or wrong or both? 

Then the old couple, slaughtered with the wife 

By the husband as accomplices in crime, 385 

Those Comparini, Pietro and his spouse, — 

What say you to the right or wrong of that. 

When, at a known name whispered through the door 

Of a lone villa on a Christmas night. 

It opened that the joyful hearts inside 390 

Might welcome as it were an angel-guest 

Come in Christ's name to knock and enter, sup 

And satisfy the loving ones he saved ; 

And so did welcome devils and their death ? 

I have been silent on that circumstance 395 

Although the couple passed for close of kin 

To wife and husband, were by some accounts 

Pompilia's very parents : you know best. 

Also that infant the great joy was for. 

That Gaetano, the wife's two-weeks' babe, 400 

The husband's first-born child, his son and heir. 

Whose birth and being turned his night to day — 

Why must the father kill the mother thus 

Because slie bore his son and saved himself ? 

Well, British Public, ye who like me not, 405 

(God love you!) and will have your proper laugh 

At the dark question, laugh it! I laugh first. 

Truth must prevail, the proverb vows ; and truth 

— Here is it all i' the book at last, as first 

There it was all i' the heads and hearts of Rome 410 

Gentle and simple, never to fall nor fade 

Nor be forgotten. Yet. a little while. 

The passage of a century or so. 

Decads thrice five, and here 's time paid his tax. 

Oblivion gone home with her harvesting, 415 

And all left smooth again as scythe could shave. 

Far from beginning with you London folk, 

I took my book to Rome first, tried tiaith's power 

On likely people. " Have you met such names? 

Is a tradition extant of such facts? 420 

Your law-courts stand, your records frown a-row : 

What if I rove and rummage? " '• — Why you '11 waste 



THE R/NG AND THE BOOK. 

Your pains and end as wise as you began!" 

Every one snickered : " names and facts thus old 

Are newer much than Europe news we find 425 

Down in to-day's Diario} Records, quotha? 

Why, the French burned them, what else do the French? 

The rap-and-rending nation ! And it tells 

Against the Church, no doubt. — another gird 

At the Temporality, your Trial, of course ? '" 430 

'* — Quite otherwise this time." submitted I ; 

" Clean for the Church and dead against the world, 

The flesh and the devil, does it tell for once." 

" — The rarer and the happier! All the same. 

Content you with your treasure of a book, 435 

And waive what 's wanting ! Take a friend's adxice! 

It 's not the custom of the country. Mend 

Your ways indeed and we may stretch a point : 

Go get you manned by Manning and new-manned 

By Newman and, mayhap, wise-manned to boot 440 

By Wiseman,'- and we 11 see or else we won't ! 

Thanks meantime for the story, long and strong, 

A pretty piece of narrative enough, 

Wiiich scarce ought so to drop out, one would think. 

From the more curious annals of our kind. 445 

Do you tell the story, now, in oft-hand style. 

Straight from the book? Or simply here and there, 

(The while you vault it through the loose and large) 

Hang to a hint? Or is there book at all. 

And don't you deal in poetry, make-believe. 450 

And the white lies it sounds like ? " 

Yes and no! 
From the book, yes ; thence bit by bit I dug 
The lingot^ truth, that memorable day. 
Assayed and knew my piecemeal gain was gold, — 
Yes ; but from something else surpassing that. 455 

Something of mine which, mixed up with the mass. 
Made it bear hammer and be firm to file. 
Fancy with fact is just one fact the more : 
To-wit. that fancy has informed, transpierced, 
Thridded and so thrown fast the facts else free, 460 

As right through ring and ring runs the djereed* 
And binds the loose, one bar without a break. 
I fused mv live soul and that inert stuff. 



' Diario : daily paper. " Lingot : the same word as ingot; here = 

- Manning, etc. : di.stinguished modern the solid mass of truth, 
prelates and champions of the Roman Catho- ■* Djcreed : an Arab spear. The allusion- 

lic Church. is to a game analogous to tilting at a ring. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 13 

Before attempting smithcraft, on tlie niglit 

After the day when. — truth thus grasped and gained, 465 

The boolv was shut and done with and laid by 

On the cream-colored massive agate, broad 

'Neath the twin cherubs in the tarnished frame 

O' tlie mirror, tall thence to the ceiling-top. 

And from the reading, and that slab I leant 470 

Mv elbow on, the while I read and read, 

I turned, to free myself and find the world. 

And stepped out on the narrow terrace, built 

Over the street and opposite the church. 

And paced its lozenge-brickwork sprinkled cool ; 475 

Because Felice-church-side stretched, a-glow 

Through each square window fringed for festival, 

Whence came the clear voice of the cloistered ones 

Chanting a chant made for midsummer nights — 

I know not what particular praise of God, 480 

It always came and went with June. Beneath 

r the street, quick shown by openings of the sky 

V/hen flame fell silently from cloud to cloud. 

Richer than that gold snow^ Jove rained on Rhodes, 

The townsmen walked by twos and threes, and talked, 485 

Drinking the blackness in default of air — 

A busy human sense beneath my feet : 

While in and out the terrace-plants, and round 

One branch of tall datura,- waxed and waned 

The lamp-fly lured there, wanting the white flower. 490 

Over the roof o' the lighted church I looked 

A bowshot to the street's end, north away 

Out of the Roman gate to the Roman road 

By the river, till I felt the Apennine. 

And there would lie Arezzo, the man's town, 495 

The woman's trap and cage and torture-place. 

Also the stage where the priest played his part, 

A spectacle for angels, — ay, indeed. 

There lay Arezzo!'^ Farther then I fared, 

Feeling my way on through the hot and dense, 500 

Romeward, until I found the wayside inn 

By Castelnuovo's few mean hut-hke homes 

Huddled together on the hill-foot bleak, 

Bare'TBroken only by that tree or two 

Against the sudden bloody splendor poured 505 

Cursewise in day's departure by the sun 

1 Gold snow, etc.: as the Rhodians were - Dat!i7-a : thorn-apple = stramonium, 

the first who oftered sacrifices to Minerva, ^ Areszo : in Tuscany, about 40 miles 

Jove rewarded them by covering the island southeast of Florence, 
with a golden cloud from which he sent 
showers of presents upon the people. 



14 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

O'er the low house-roof of that squalid inn 

Where they three, for the first time and the last, 

Husband and wife and priest, met face to face. 

Whence I went on again, the end was near, 510 

Step by step, missing none and marking ail. 

Till Rome itself, the ghastly goal. I reached. 

Why. all the while. — how could it otherwise? — 

The life in me abolished the death of things. 

Deep calling unto deep : as then and there 515 

Acted itself over again once more 

The tragic piece. I saw with my own eyes 

In Florence as I trod the terrace, breathed 

The beauty and the tearfulness of night. 

How it had run. this round from Rome to Rome — 520 

Because, you are to know, they lived at Rome, 

Pompilia\s parents, as they thought themselves, 

Two poor ignoble hearts who did their best 

Part God's way, part the other way than God's, 

To somehow make a shift and scramble through 525 

The world's mud. careless if it splashed and spoiled. 

Provided they might so hold high, keep clean 

Their child's soul, one soul white enough for three, 

And lift it to whatever star should stoop. 

What possible sphere of purer life than theirs 530 

Should come in aid of whiteness hard to save. 

I saw the star stoop, that they strained to touch, 

And did touch and depose their treasure on, 

As Guido Franceschini took away 

Pompilia to be his for evermore, 535 

While thev sang •• Now let us depart in peace. 

Having beheld thy glory, Guido's wife! '" 

I saw the star supposed, but fog o' the fen, 

Gilded star-fashion by a glint from hell ; 

Having been heaved up. haled on its gross ^vay, 540 

By hands unguessed before, invisible help 

From a dark brotherhood, and specially 

Two obscure goblin creatures, fox-faced this. 

Cat-clawed the other, called his next of kin 

By Guido the main monster. — cloaked and caped. 545 

Making as they were priests, to mock God more. — 

Abate Paul, Canon Girolamo. 

These who had rolled the starlike pest to Rome 

And stationed it to suck up and absorb 

The sweetness of Pompilia. rolled again 550 

That bloated bubble, with her soul inside. 

Back to Arezzo and a palace there — 

Or say, a fissure in the honest earth 

Whence long ago had curled the vapor first. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 15 

Blown big by nether fires to appal day : 555 

It touched home, broke, and blasted far and wide. 

I saw the cheated couple find the cheat 

And guess what foul rite they were captured for, — 

Too fain to follow over hill and dale 

That child of theirs caught up thus in the cloud 560 

And carried by tlie Prince o' the Power of the Air 

Whither he would, to wilderness or sea. 

I saw them, in the potency of fear, 

Break somehow through the satyr-family 

(For a gray mother with a monkey-mien, 565 

Mopping and mowing, was apparent too, 

As confident of capture, all took hands 

And danced about the captives in a ring) 

' — Saw them break through, breathe safe, at Rome again, 

Saved by the selfish instinct, losing so 570 

Their loved one left with haters. These I saw, 

In recrudegceney^of bafiled hate. 

Prepare to wring the uttermost revenge 

From body and soul thus left them : all was sure. 

Fire laid and cauldron set, the obscene ring traced, 575 

The victim stripped and prostrate : what of God? 

The cleaving of a cloud, a cry, a crash. 

Quenched lay their cauldron, cowered i' the dust the crew. 

As. in a glory of armor like Saint George, 

Out again sprang the young good beauteous priest 5S0 

Bearing away the lady in his arms. 

Saved for a splendid minute and no more. 

For, whom i' the path did that priest come upon, 

He and the poor lost lady borne so brave, 

— Checking the song of praise in me, had else 585 

Swelled to the full for God's will done on earth — 

Whom but a dusk misfeatured messenger. 

No other than the angel of this life, 

Whose care is lest men see too much at once. 

He made the sign, such God-glimpse must suffice, 590 

Nor prejudice the Prince o' the Power of the Air, 

Whose ministration piles us overhead 

What we call, first, earth's roof and. last, heaven's floor. 

Now grate o' the trap, then outlet of the cage : 

So took the lady, left the priest alone, 595 

And once more canopied the world with black. 

But through the blackness I saw Rome again. 

And where a solitary villa stood 

In a lone garden-quarter: it was eve. 

The second of the year, and oh so cold! 600 

Ever and anon there flittered through the air 

A snow-flake, and a scanty couch of snow 



1 6 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Crusted the grass-walk and the garden-mould. 

All was grave, silent, sinister, — when, ha? 

Glimmeringly did a pack of were-wolves pad 605 

The snow, those flames were Guido's eyes in front, 

And all five found and footed it, the track. 

To where a threshold-streak of warmth and light 

Betrayed the villa-door with life inside. 

While an inch outside were those blood-bright eyes, 610 

And black lips wrinkling o'er the flash of teeth. 

And tongues that lolled — Oh God that madest man! 

They parleyed in their language. Then one whined — 

That was the policy and master-stroke — 

Deep in his throat whispered what seemed a name — 615 

'• Open to Caponsacchi!" Guido cried : 

" Gabriel! '' cried Lucifer at Eden-gate. 

Wide as a heart, opened the door at once, 

Showing the joyous couple, and their child 

The two-weeks' mother, to the wolves, the wolves 620 

To them. Close eyes! And when the corpses lay 

Stark-stretched, and those the wolves, their wolf-work done, 

W^ere safe-embosomed by the night again, 

I knew a necessary change in things ; 

As when the worst watch of the night gives way, 625 

And there comes duly, to take cognizance, 

The scrutinizing eye-point of some star — 

And who despairs of a new daybreak now .'' 

Lo, the first ray protruded on those five! 

It reached them, and each felon writhed transfixed. 630 

Awhile they palpitated on the spear 

Motionless over Tophet : stand or fall.-' 

" I say, the spear should fall — should stand, I say ! " 

Cried the world come to judgment, granting grace 

Or dealing doom according to world's wont, 635 

Those w^orld's-bystanders grouped on Rome's cross-road 

At prick and summons of the primal curse 

Which bids man love as well as make a lie. 

There prattle they, discoursed the right and wrong. 

Turned wrong to right, proved wolves sheepjmd sheep wolves, 640 

So that you scarce distinguished fell from'fleece ; 

Till out spoke a great guardian of the fold. 

Stood up, put forth his hand that held the crook. 

And motioned that the arrested point decline : 

Horribly off, the wriggling dead-weight reeled, 645 

Rushed to the bottom and lav ruined there. 

Though still at the pit's mouth, despite the smoke 

O' the burning, tarriers turned again to talk 

And trim the balance, and detect at least 

A touch of wolf in what showed whitest sheep, 650 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 17 

A cross of sheep redeeming the whole wolf, — 

Vex truth a little longer : — less and less, 

Because years came and went, and more and more 

Brought new lies with them to be loved in turn. 

Till all at once the memory of the thing, — 655 

The fact that, wolves or sheep, such creatures were, — 

Which hitherto, however men supposed. 

Had somehow plain and pillar-like prevailed 

r the midst of them, indisputably fact, 

Granite, time's tooth should grjte against, not graze, — 660 

Why, this proved sandstone, friable, fast to fly 

And give its grain away at wish o' the wind. 

Ever and ever more diminutive. 

Base gone, shaft lost, only entablature. 

Dwindled into no bigger than a book, 665 

Lay of the column ; and that little, left 

B_\- the roadside 'mid the ordure, shards and weeds. 

Until I haply, wandering that lone way, 

Kicked it up, turned it over, and recognized, 

For all the crumblement, this abacus,^ 670 

Tliis square old yellow book, could calculate 

By this the lost proportions of the style. 

This was it from, my fancy with those facts, 

I used to tell the tale, turned gay to grave. 

But lacked a listener seldom ; such alloy, 675 

Such substance of me interfused the gold 

Which, wrought into a shapely ring therewith, 

Hammered and filed, fingered and favored, last 

Lay ready for the renovating wash 

O' the water. " How much of the tale was true ? " 680 

I disappeared ; the book grew all in all ; 

The lawyers' pleadings swelled back to their size, — 

Doubled in two, the crease upon them yet. 

For more commodity of carriage, see! — 

And these are letters, veritable sheets 685 

That brought posthaste the news to Florence, writ 

At Rome the day Count Guido died, we find. 

To stay the craving of a client there. 

Who bound the same and so produced my liook. 

Lovers ofji£ad_truth, did ye fare the worse? 690 

Lovers of live trufh",Tound ye false my tale? 

Well, now; there's nothing in nor out o' the world 
Good except truth : yet this, the something else, 

1 Abacus : the upper part of the capital of a pillar on which the architrave rests. In 
its earliest forms it is generally square in shape. 
C 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

What 's this then, which proves good yet seems untrue? 

This that I mixed with truth, motions of mine 695 

That quickened, made the inertness malleolable ^ 

O" the gold was not mine, — what 's your name for this ? 

Are means to the end, themselves in part the end? 

Is fiction which makes fact alive, fact too? / 

The somehow may be thishow. 

I find first 700 

Writ down for very /^B C of fact, 
'• In the beginning God made heaven and earth ; " 
From which, no matter with what lisp, I spell 
And speak you out a consequence — that man, 
Man, — as befits the made, the inferior thing, — 705 

Purposed, since made, to grow, not make in turn. 
Yet forced to try and make, else fail to grow, — 
Formed to rise, reach at, if not grasp and gain 
The good beyond him, — which attempt is growth, — 
Repeats God's process in man's due degree, 710 

Attaining man's proportionate result, — 
Creates, no, but resuscitates, perhaps. 
Inalienable, the arch-prerogative 
Which turns thought, act — conceives, expresses too! 
No less, man, bounded, yearning to be free, 715 

May so project his surplusage of soul 
In search of body, so add self to self 
By owning what lay ownerless before, — 
So find, so fill full, so appropriate forms — 
That, although nothing which had never life 720 

Shall get life from him, be, not having been. 
Yet, something dead may get to live again. 
Something with too much life or not enough, 
Which, either way imperfect, ended once : 
An end whereat man's impulse intervenes, 725 

Makes new beginning, starts the dead alive. 
Completes the incomplete and saves the thing. 
Man's breath were vain to light a virgin wick. — 
Half-burned-out, all but quite-quenched wicks o' the lamp 
Stationed for temple-service on this earth, 730 

These indeed let him breathe on and relume! 
For such man's feat is, in the due degree, 
— Mimic creation, galvanism for life. 
But still a glory portioned in the scale. 

Why did the mage say, — feeling as we are wont 735 

For truth, and stopping midway short of truth. 
And resting on a lie, — "I raise a ghost " ? 

^ Malleolable : formed I'rom the Latin, malleolus, a little b.ammer. 



THE R/iVG AND THE BOOK. 19 

"Because," he taught adepts, "man makes not man. 

Yet by a special gift, an art of arts. 

More insight and more outsight and much more 740 

Will to use both of these than boast my mates, 

I can detach from me, commission forth 

Half of my soul ; which in its pilgrimage 

O'er old unwandered waste ways of the world, 

May chance upon some fragment of a whole, 745 

Rag of flesh, scrap of bone in dim disuse. 

Smoking flax that fed fire once : prompt therein 

I enter, spark-like, put old powers to play, 

Push lines out to the limit, lead forth last 

(By a moonrise through a ruin of a crypt) 750 

What shall be mistily seen, murmuringly heard. 

Mistakenly felt : then write my name with Faust's! " 

Oh, Faust, why Faust? Was not Elisha once? — 

Who bade them lay his staff on a corpse-face. 

There was no voice, no hearing : he went in 755 

Therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, 

And prayed unto the Lord : and he went up 

And lay upon the corpse, dead on the couch, 

And put his mouth upon its mouth, his eyes 

Upon its eyes, his hands upon its hands, 760 

And stretched him on the flesh ; the flesh waxed warm : 

And he returned, walked to and fro the house. 

And went up, stretched him on the flesh again. 

And the eyes opened. 'T is a credible feat 

With the right man and way. 

Enough of me ! 765 

The Book ! I turn its medicinable leaves 
In London now till, as in Florence erst, 
A spirit laughs and leaps through every limb, 
And lights my eye, and lifts me by the hair, 
Letting me have my will again with these 770 

— How title I the dead alive once more? 

Count Guido Franceschini the Aretine, 

Descended of an ancient house, though poor, 

A beak-nosed bushy-bearded black-haired lord, 

Lean, pallid, low of stature yet robust, Jj^ 

Fifty years old, — having four years ago 

Married Pompilia Comparini, young. 

Good, beautiful, at Rome, where she was born. 

And brought her to Arezzo, where the\- lived 

Unhappy lives, whatever curse the cause, — 780 

This husband, taking four accomplices. 

Followed this wife to Rome, where she was fled 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

From their Arezzo to find peace again, 

In convoy, eight months eariier, of a priest, 

Aretine also, of still nobler birth, 785 

Giuseppe Caponsacchi, — caught her there 

Quiet in a villa on a Christmas night. 

With only Pietro and Violante by, 

Both her putative parents ; killed the three, 

Aged, they, seventy each, and she, seventeen, 790 

And, two weeks since, the mother of his babe 

First-born and heir to what the style was worth 

O' the Guido who determined, dared and did 

This deed just as he purposed point by point. 

Then, bent upon escape, but hotly pressed, 795 

And captured with his co-mates that same night, 

He, brought to trial, stood on this defence — 

Injury to his honor caused the act ; 

And since his wife was false, (as manifest 

By flight from home in such companionship,) 800 

Death, punishment deserved of the false wife 

And faithless parents who abetted her 

r the flight aforesaid, wronged nor God nor man. 

" Nor false she, nor yet faithless they," replied 

The accuser; "cloaked and masked this murder glooms ; 805 

True was Pompilia, loyal too the pair ; 

Out of the man's own heart a monster curled 

Which — crime coiled with connivancy at crime — 

His victim's breast, he tells you, hatched and reared ; 

Uncoil we and stretch stark the worm of hell! " 810 

A month the trial swayed this way and that 

Ere judgment settled down on Guido's guilt ; 

Then was the Pope, that good Twelfth Innocent, 

Appealed to : who well weighed what went before, 

Affirmed the guilt and gave the guilty doom. 815 

Let this old-Woe step on the stage again! 

Act itself o'er anew for men to judge. 

Not by the very sense and sight indeed — 

(Which take at best imperfect cognizance. 

Since, how heart moves brain, and how both move hand, 820 

What mortal ever in entirety saw?) 

— No dose of purer truth than man digests. 

But truth with falsehood, milk that feeds him now, 

Not strong meat he mav get to bear some day — 

To-wit, by voices we call evidence, 825 

Uproar in the echo, live fact deadened down, 

Talked over, bruited abroad, whispered away, 

Yet helping' us to all we seem to hear: 

For how else know we save by worth of word? 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 21 

Here are the voices presently shall sound 830 

In due succession. First, the world's outcry 

Around the rush and ripple of any fact 

Fallen stonewise, plumb on the smooth face of things ; 

The world's guess, as it crowds the bank o' the pool, 

At what were tigure and substance, by their splash : 835 

Then, by vibrations in the general mind. 

At depth of deed already out of reach. 

This threefold murder of the day before. — 

Say, Half-Rome's feel after the vanished truth ; 

Honest enough, as the way is : all the same, 840 

Harboring in the centre of its sense 

A hidden germ^£failuie. shv but sure, 

To neutraliz€'TTiat~lTonesty and leave 

That feel for truth at fault, as the way is too. 

Some prepossession such as starts amiss. 845 

By but a hair's breadth at the shoulder-blade, 

The arm o' the feeler, dip he ne'er so bold ; 

So leads arm waveringly. lets fall wide 

O' the mark its finger, sent to find and fix 

Truth at the bottom, that deceptive speck. 850 

With this Half-Rome, — the source of swerving, call 

Over-belief in Guido's right and wrong 

Rather than in Pompilia's wrong and right : 

Who shall say how, who shall say why? 'Tis there — 

The instinctive theorizing whence a fact 855 

Looks to the eye as the eye likes the look. 

Gossip in a public place, a sample-speech. 

Some worthy, with his previous hint to find 

A husband's side the safer, and no whit 

Aware he is not ^acus ^ the while, — 860 

How such an one supposes and states fact 

To whosoever of a multitude 

Will listen, and perhaps prolong thereby 

The not-unpleasant flutter at the breast, 

Born of a certain spectacle shut in 865 

By the church Lorenzo opposite. So, they lounge 

Midway the mouth o' the street, on Corso side, 

'Twixt palace Fiano and palace Ruspoli, 

Linger and listen ; keeping clear o' the crowd. 

Yet wishful one could lend that crowd one's eyes, 870 

( So universal is its plague of squint) 

And make hearts beat our time that flutter false : 

— All for truth's sake, mere truth, nothing else! 

How Half-I^^Bie-foujid for Guido much exews^. 

^ ^acus : the colleague of Minos and Rhadamanthus as judge of the nether world; 
hence a type of impartiality. 



22 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Next, from Rome's other half, the opposite feel 875 

For truth with a like swerve, like unsuccess, — 

Or if success, by no skill but more luck 

This time, through siding rather with the wife. 

Because a fancy-tit inclined that way. 

Than with the husband. One wears drab, one pink ; 880 

Who wears pink, ask him "Which shall win the race. 

Of coupled limners like as egg and egg?" 

" — Why, if I must choose, he with the pink scarf." 

Doubtless for some such reason choice fell here. 

A piece of public talk to correspond 885 

At the next stage of the story ; just a day 

Let pass and new day brings the proper change. 

Another sample-speech i' the market-place 

O' the Barberini by the Capucins ; 

Where the old Triton,^ at his fountain-sport, 890 

Bernini's creature plated to the paps, 

Puffs up steel sleet which breaks to diamond dust, 

A spray of sparkles snorted from his conch, 

High over the caritellas, out o' the way 

O' the motley merchandizing multitude. 895 

Our murder has been done three days ago. 

The frost is over and gone, the south wind laughs. 

And, to the very tiles of each red roof 

A-smoke i' the sunshine. Rome lies gold and glad : 

So. listen how, to the other half of Rome, 900 

Pompilia seemed a saint and martyr both! 

Then, yet another day let come and go, 

With pause prelusive still of novelty, 

Hear a fresh speaker! — neither this nor that 

Half-Rome aforesaid ; something bred of both : 905 

One and one breed the inevitable three. 

Such is the personage harangues you next ; 

The elaborated product, tertiiun quid:'- 

Rome's first commotion in subsidence gives 

The curd o' the cream, flower o' the wheat, as it were, 910 

And finer sense o' the city. Is this plain? 

You get a reasoned statement of the case, 

Eventual verdict of the curious few 

Who care to sift a business to the bran 

Nor coarsely bolt it like the simpler sort. 915 

Here, after ignorance, instruction speaks ; 

^ Old Triton : fountain in the great square - Tertium quid : a third something 

of the Barberini palace, palace and fountain 
both by Bernini, celebrated sculptor and archi- 
tect, 1598-1680. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 23 

Here, clarity of candor, history's soul, 

The critical mind, in short : no gossip-guess. 

What the superior social section thinks. 

In person of some man of quality 920 

Who, — breathing musk from lace-work and brocade, 

His solitaire amid the flow of frill, 

Powdered peruke on nose, and bag at back. 

And cane dependent from the ruffled wrist, — 

Harangues in silvery and selectest phrase 925 

'Neath waxlight in a glorified saloon 

Where mirrors multiply the girandole : ^ 

Courting the approbation of no mob. 

But Eminence This and All-Illustrious That i v^ 

Who take snuff softly, range in well-bred ring, Vn^^ 930 

Card-table-quitters for observance' sake. 

Around the argument, the rational word — 

Still, spite its weight and worth, a sample-speech. 

How Quality dissertated on the case. 

So much for Rome and rumor ; smoke comes first : 935 

Once let smoke rise untroubled, we descry 

Clearlier what tongues of flame may spire and spit 

To eye and ear, each with appropriate tinge 

According to its food, or pure or foul. 

The actors, no mere rumors of the act, 940 

Intervene. First you hear Count Guido's voice, 

In a small chamber that adjoins the court, 

Where Governor and Judges, summoned thence, 

Tommati, Venturini and the rest. 

Find the accused ripe for declaring truth. 945 

Soft-cushioned sits he ; yet shifts seat, shirks touch, 

As, with a twitchy brow and wincing lip 

And cheek that changes to all kinds of white. 

He proffers his defence, in tones subdued 

Near to mock-mildness now, so mournful seems 950 

The obtuser sense truth fails to satisfy ; 

Now, moved, from pathos at the wrong endured. 

To passion ; for the natural man is roused 

At fools who-fii^-do wrong then pour the blame 

Of their wrong-doing, Satan-like, on Job. 955 

Also his tongue at times is hard to curb ; 

Incisive, nigh satiric bites the phrase. 

Rough-raw, yet somehow claiming privilege 

— It is so hard for shrewdness to admit 

Folly means no harm when she calls, blackwhite ! 960 

— Eruption momentary a?"Th€"fnost, 

^ Girandole : a dance. 



24 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Modified forthwith by a fall o' the fire, 

Sage acquiescence ; for the world 's the world, 

And, what it errs in. Judges rectify : 

He feels he has a fist, then folds his arms 965 

Crosswise and makes his mind up to be meek. 

And never once does he detach his eye 

From those ranged there to slay him or to save, 

But does his best man's-service for himself, 

Despite, — what twitches brow and makes lip wince, — 970 

His limbs' late taste of what was called the Cord, 

Or Vigil-torture ^ more facetiously. 

Even so ; they were wont to tease the truth 

Out of loth witness (toying, trifling time) 

By torture : 't was a trick, a vice of the age. 975 

Here, there and everywhere, what would you have? 

Religion used to tell Humanity 

She gave him warrant or denied him course. 

And since the course was much to his own mind, 

Of pinching flesh and pulling bone from bone 980 

To unhusk truth a-hiding in its hulls. 

Nor whisper of a warning stopped the way. 

He, in their joint behalf, the burly slave. 

Bestirred him, mauled and maimed all recusants, 

While, prim in place. Religion overlooked ; 985 

And so had done till doomsday, never a sign 

Nor sound of interference from her mouth. 

But that at last the burly slave wiped brow, 

Let eye give notice as if soul were there. 

Muttered '' 'T is a vile trick, foolish more than vile, 990 

Should have been counted sin ; I make it so : 

At anv rate no more of it for me — 

Nav, for I break the torture-engine thus ! " 

Then did Religion start up, stare amain. 

Look round for help and see none, smile and say 991^ 

"What, broken is the rack? Well done of thee! 

Did I forget to abrogate its use? 

Be the mistake in common with us both ! 

— One more fault our blind age shall answer for, 

Down in my book denounced though it must be looo 

Somewhere. Henceforth find trath by milder means!" 

Ah but. Religion, did we wait for thee 

To ope the book, that serves to sit upon. 

And pick such place out, we should wait indeed! 

That is all history : and what is not now, 1005 

Was then, defendants found it to their cost. 

How Guido, after being tortured, spoke. 

» Vigil-torture : which kept the accused a jurist of Bologna, and called by him cordis 
from sleep, said to be invented by Marsiliis, dolorem. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 25 

Also hear Caponsacchi who comes next, 

Man and priest — could you comprehend the coil! — 

In days when that was rife which now is rare. loio 

How, mingling each its multifarious wires. 

Now heaven, now earth, now heaven and earth at once, 

Had plucked at and perplexed their puppet here, 

Played off the young frank personable priest ; 

Sworn fast and tonsiired plain heaven's celibate, , 1015 

And vet earth's clear-accepted servitor, " 

A courtly spiritual Cupid, squire of dames 

By law of love and mandate of the mode. 

The Church's own, or why parade her seal, 

Wherefore that chrism and consecrative work? 1020 

Yet verily the world's, or why go badged 

A prince of sonneteers and lutanists.^ 

Show color of each vanity in vogue 

Borne with decorum due on blameless breast ? 

All that is changed now. as he tells the court 1025 

How he had played the part excepted at ; 

Tell it. moreover, now the second time : 

Since, for his cause of scandal, his own share 

r the flight from home and husband of the wife, 

He has been censured, punished in a sort 1030 

By relegation, — exile, we should say, 

To a short distance for a little time, — 

Whence he is summoned on a sudden now, 

Informed that she, he thought to save, is lost, 

And, in a breath, bidden re-tell his tale, 1035 

Since the first telling somehow missed effect. 

And then advise in the matter. There stands he. 

While the same grim black-panelled chamber blinks 

As though rubbed shiny with the sins of Rome 

Told the same oak for ages — wave-washed wall 1040 

Against which sets a sea of wickedness. 

There, where you yesterday heard Guido speak. 

Speaks Caponsacchi ; and there face him too 

Tommatj, Venturini and the rest 

Who, eight monflTs earlier, scarce repressed the smile, 1045 

Forewent the wink ; waived recognition so 

Of peccadillos incident to youth. 

Especially youth high-born ; for youth means love, 

Vows can't change nature, priests are only men, 

And love likes stratagem and subterfuge _ 1050 

Which age, that once was youth, should recognize, 

May blame, but needs not press too hard upon. , 

Here sit the old Judges then, but with no grace 

1 Lutaiiist : player on the lute. 



26 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Of reverend carriage, magisterial port : 

For why? The accused of eight months since, — the same 1055 

Who cut the conscious figure of a fool. 

Changed countenance, dropped bashful gaze to ground, 

While hesitating for an answer then, — 

Now is grown judge himself, terrifies now 

This, now the other culprit called a judge, 1060 

Whose turn it is to stammer and look strange. 

As he speaks rapidly, angrily, speech that smites : 

And they keep silence, bear blow after blow. 

Because the seeming-solitary man. 

Speaking for God, may have an audience too, 1065 

Invisible, no discreet judge provokes. 

How the priest Caponsacchi said his say. 

Then a soul sighs its lowest and its last 

After the loud ones, — so much breath remains 

Unused by the four-days'-dying ; for she lived 1070 

Thus long, miraculously long, 't was thought, 

Just that Pompilia might defend herself. 

How. while the hireling and the alien stoop. 

Comfort, yet question, — since the time is brief, 

And folk, allowably inquisitive, 1075 

Encircle the low pallet where she lies 

In the good house that helps the poor to die, — • 

Pompilia tells the story of her life. 

For friend and lover, — leech and man of law 

Do service ; busy helpful ministrants 1080 

As varied in their calling as their mind. 

Temper and age : and yet from all of these. 

About the white bed under the arched roof. 

Is somehow, as it were, evolved a one, — 

Small separate sympathies combined and large, 1085 

Nothings that were, grown something very much : 

As if the bystanders gave each his straw. 

All he had, though a trifle in itself. 

Which, plaited all together, made a Cross 

Fit to die looking on and praying with, logo 

Just as well as if ivory or gold. 

So, to the common kindliness she speaks. 

There being scarce more privacy at the last 

For mind than body : but she is used to bear, 

And only unused to the brotherly look. 1095 

How she endeavored to explain her life. 

Then, since a Trial ensued, a touch o' the same 

To sober us, flustered with frothy talk. 

And teach our common sense its helplessness. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 27 

For why deal simply with divining-rod, 1 100 

Scrape where we fancy secret sources flow, 

And ignore law, the recognized machine, 

Elaborate display of pipe and wheel 

Framed to unchoke, pump up and pour apace 

Truth till a flowery foam shall wash the world? 1 105 

The patent tru th-extra cting process, — ha? 

Let us make that grave mystery turn one wheel, 

Give you a single grind of law at least! 

One Orator, of two on either side. 

Shall teach us the puissance of the tongue ^ mo 

— That is. o' the pen which simulated tongue 

On paper and saved all except the sound 

Which never was. Law's speech beside law's thought? 

That were too stunning, too immense an odds : 

That point of vantage law lets nobly pass. 1115 

One lawyer shall admit us to behold 

The manner of the making out a case. 

First fashion of a speech ; the chick in egg. 

The masterpiece law's bosom incubates. 

How Don Giacinto of the Arcangeli, 1120 

Called Procurator of the Poor at Rome, 

Now advocate for Guido and his mates, — 

The jollv learned man of middle age. 

Cheek and jowl all in laps with fat and law. 

Mirthful as mighty, yet, as great hearts use, 11 25 

Despite the name and fame that tempt our flesh. 

Constant to that devotion of the hearth. 

Still captive in those dear domestic ties! — 

How he, — having a cause to triumph with. 

All kind of interests to keep intact, 11 30 

More than one efficacious personage 

To tranquillize, conciliate and secure. 

And above all, public anxiety 

To quiet, show its Guido in good hands, — 

Also, as if such burdens were too light, 1135 

A certain family-feast to claim his care. 

The birthday-banquet for the only son — 

Paternity at smiling strife with law — 

How he brings both to buckle in one bond ; 

And, thick at throat, with waterish under-eye, 1140 

Turns to his task and settles in his seat 
And puts his utmost means in practice now : 
Wheezes out law-phrase, whiffles Latin forth. 
And, just as though roast lamb would never be, 
Makes logic levigate ^ the big crime small : 1 145 

1 Levigate : make light of. 



28 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Rubs palm on palm, rakes foot with itchy foot, 

Conceives and inchoates the argument. 

Sprinkling each flower appropriate to the time, 

— Ovidiao^quip or CicetQuian crank, 

A-bubble mthe larynx \vlule he laughs, 1 1 50 

As he had fritters deep down frying there. 

How he turns, twists, and tries the oily thing 

Shall be — first speech for Guido 'gainst the Fisc 

Then with a skip as it were from heel to head. 

Leaving yourselves fill up the middle bulk 11 55 

O' the Trial, reconstruct its shape august. 

From such exordium clap we to the close ; 

Give you, if we dare wing to such a height. 

The absolute glory in some full-grown speech 

On the other side, some finished butterfly, 1160 

Some breathing diamond-flake with leaf-gold fans, 

That takes the air, no trace of worm it was, 

Or cabbage-bed it had production from. 

Giovambattista o' the Bottini, Fisc, 

Pompilia's patron by the chance of the hour, 1 165 

To-morrow her persecutor, — composite, he. 
As becomes who must meet such various calls — 
Odds of age joined in him with ends of youth. 
A man of ready smile and facile tear. 

Improvised hopes, despairs at nod and beck, 1 170 

And language — ah, the gift of eloquence! 
Language that goes, goes, easy as a glove. 
O'er good and evil, smoothens both to one. 
Rashness helps caution with him, fires the straw, 
In free enthusiastic careless fit. 1 1 75 

On the first proper pinnacle of rock 
Which ofi^ers, as reward for all that zeal. 
To lure some bark to founder and bring gain : 
While calm sits Caution, rapt with heavenward eye, 
A true confessor's gaze, amid the glare 1180 

Beaconing to the breaker, death and hell. 
<' Well done, thou good and faithful " she approves : 
'• Hadst thou let slip a fagot to the beach. 
The crew might surely spy thy precipice 

And save their boat ; the simple and the slow 1 185 

Might so, forsooth, forestall the wrecker's fee! 
Let the next crew be wise and hail in time ! " 
Just so compounded is the outside man. 
Blue juvenile pure eye and pippin cheek, 

And brow all prematurely soiled and seamed 1 190 

With sudden age, bright devastated hair. 
Ah. but you miss the very tones o' the voice. 
The scrannel pipe that screams in heights of head, 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 29 

As, in his modest studio, all alone. 

The tall wight stands a-tiptoe. strives and strains, 11 95 

Both eyes shut, like the cockerel that would crow, 

Tries to his own self amorously o'er 

What never will be uttered else than so — 

Since to the four walls, Forum and Mars' Hill, 

Speaks out the poesy which, penned, turns prose. 1200 

Clavecinist^ debarred his instrument. 

He yet thrums — shirking neither turn nor trill. 

With desperate linger on dumb table-edge — 

The sovereign rondo,- shall conclude his Suite, 

Charm an imaginary audience there, 1205 

From old Corelli ^ to young Haendel,'* both 

r the flesh at Rome, ere he perforce go print 

The cold black score, mere music for the mind — 

The last speech against Guido and his gang. 

With special end to prove Pompilia pure. ^ " 1210 

How the Fisc vindicates Pompilia's fame. ^ 

Then comes the all but end, the ultimate 

Judgment save yours. Pope Innocent the Twelfth, 

Simple, sagacious, mild yet resolute. 

With prudence, probity and — what beside 1215 

From the other world he feels impress at times, 

Having attained to fourscore years and six, — 

How, when the court found Guido and the rest 

Guilty, but law supplied a subterfuge 

And passed the final sentence to the Pope, 1220 

He. bringing his intelligence to bear 

This last time on what ball behoves him drop 

In the urn, or white or black, does drop a black. 

Send five souls more to just precede his own, 

Stand him in stead and witness, if need were, 1225 

How he is wont to do God's work on earth. 

The manner of his sitting out the dim 

Droop of a sombre February day 

In the plain closet where he does such work. 

With, from all Peter's treasury, one stool, 1230 

One table, and one lathen^ crucifix. 

There sits the Pope, his thoughts for company ; 

Grave but not sad, — nay, something like a cheer 

1 a(ZZ/^«V«>/.- a player on the harpsichord. '^ Haendel : celebrated composer, 1685- 
= Rondo: a form of composition in which 1759. 

the theme is repeated and developed according ■• Lathen : probably meant for latteti, a 
to certain rules. Often used as the final move- fine kind of brass or bronze used xn the 
ment of a sonata or suite. Middle Ages for crosses and candlesticks. 

2 Corelli : Arcangelo, violin virtuoso and 
composer, 1652-1713. 



30 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Leaves the lips free to be benevolent, 

Which, all day long, did duty firm and fast. 1235 

A cherishing there is of foot and knee, 

A chafing loose-skinned large-veined hand with hand, — 

What steward but knows when stewardship earns its wage, 

May levy praise, anticipate the lord ? 

He reads, notes, lays the papers down at last, 1240 

Muses, then takes a turn about the room ; 

Unclasps a huge tome in an antique guise, 

Primitive print and tongue half obsolete. 

That stands him in diui^nal stead ; opes page. 

Finds place where falls the passage to be conned 1245 

According to an order long in use : 

And. as he comes upon the evening's chance. 

Starts somewhat, solemnizes straight his smile. 

Then reads aloud that portion first to last. 

And at the end lets flow his own thoughts forth 1250 

Likewise aloud, for respite and relief. 

Till by the dreary relics of the west 

Wan through the half-moon window, all his light. 

He bows the head while the lips move in prayer. 

Writes some three brief lines, signs and seals the same, 1255 

Tinkles a hand-bell, bids the obsequious Sir 

Who puts foot presently o' the closet-sill 

He watched outside of, bear as superscribed 

That mandate to the Governor forthwith : 

Then heaves abroad liis cares in one good sigh, 1260 

Traverses corridor with no arm's help, 

And so to sup as a clear conscience should. 

The manner of the judgment of the Pope. 

Then must speak Guido yet a second time, 

Satan's old saw being apt here — skin for skin, 1265 

All a man hath that will he give for life. 

While life was graspable and gainable. 

And bird-like buzzed her wings round Guido's brow. 

Not much truth stitfened out the web of words 

He wove to catch her : when away she flew 1270 

And death came, death's breath rivelled^ up the lies, 

Left bare the metal thread, the fibre fine 

Of truth, i' the spinning : the true words shone last. 

How Guido, to another purpose quite, 

Speaks and despairs, the last night of his life, 1275 

In that New Prison by Castle Angelo 

At the bridge foot : the same man, another voice. 

On a stone bench in a close fetid cell, 

'^ Riveiled : shrank up. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 31 

Where the hot vapor of an agony, 

Struck into drops on the cold wall, runs down — 1280 

Horrible worms made out of sweat and tears — 

There crouch, well nigh to the knees in dungeon-straw, 

Lit by the sole lamp suffered for their sake, 

Two awe-struck ligures, this a Cardinal, 

That an Abate, both of old styled friends 1285 

O' the thing part man part monster in the midst, 

So changed is Franceschini's gentle blood. 

The tiger-cat screams now, that whined before, 

That pried and tried and trod so gingerly, 

Till in its silkiness the trap-teeth joined ; 1290 

Then you know how the bristling fury foams. 

They listen, this wrapped in his tolds of red. 

While his feet fumble for the filth below ; 

The other, as beseems a stouter heart. 

Working his best with beads and cross to ban 1295 

The enemy that comes in like a flood 

Spite of the standard set up, verily 

And in no trope at all, against him there ; 

For at the prison-gate, just a few steps 

Outside, already, in the doubtful dawn, 1300 

Thither, from this side and from that, slow sweep 

And settle down in silence solidly. 

Crow-wise, the frightful Brotherhood of Death ^ 

Black-hatted and black-hooded huddle they. 

Black rosaries a-dangling from each waist; 1305 

So take they their grim station at the door. 

Torches lit, skull-and-cross-bones-banner spread, 

And that gigantic Christ with open arms, 

Grounded. Nor lacks there aught but that the group 

Break forth, intone the lamentable psalm, 1310 

"Out of the deeps. Lord, have I cried to thee!" — 

When inside, from the true profound, a sign 

Shall bear intelligence that the foe is foiled. 

Count Guido Franceschini has confessed. 

And is absolved and reconciled with God. 131 5 

Then they, intoning, may begin their march. 

Make by the longest way for the People's Square, 

Carry the criminal to his crime's award : 

A mob to cleave, a scaiTolding to reach. 

Two gallows and Mannaia- crowning all. 1320 

How Guido made defence a second time. 



'^ Brotherhood of Death : the confrater- ' Mantmia : a kind of guillotine. 

nity of the Misericordia, or brothers of mercy, 
who prepare criminals for death, and attend 
funerals as an act of charity. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Finally, even as thus by step and step 

I led you from the level of to-day 

Up to the summit of so long ago, 

Here, whence I point you the wide prospect round — 1325 

Let me, by lilve steps, slope you back to smooth, 

Land you on mother-earth, no whit the worse, 

To feed o' the fat o' the furrow : free to dwell, 

Taste our time's better tilings profusely spread 

For all who love the level, corn and wine, 1330 

Much cattle and the many-folded fleece. 

Shall not my friends go feast again on sward, 

Though cognizant of country in the clouds 

Higher than wistful eagle's horny eye 

Ever unclosed for, 'mid ancestral crags, 1335 

When morning broke and Spring was back once more, 

And he died, heaven, save by his heart, unreached ? 

Yet heaven my fancy lifts to. ladder-like, — 

As Jack reached, holpen^ of his beanstalk-rungs! 

A novel country : I might make it mine 1340 

By choosing which one aspect of the year 

Suited mood best, and putting solely that 

On panel somewhere in the House of Fame, 

Landscaping what I saved, not what I saw : 

— Might fix you, whether frost in goblin-time 1345 

Startled the moon with his abrupt bright laugh. 

Or, August's hair afloat in filmy fire, 

She fell, arms wide, face foremost on the world. 

Swooned there and so singed out the strength of things. 

Thus were abolished Spring and Autumn both, 1350 

The land dwarfed to one likeness of the land. 

Life cramped corpse-fashion. Rather learn and love 

Each facet-flash of the revolving year! — 

Red, green and blue that whirl into a white. 

The variance now, the eventual unity, 1355 

Which make the miracle. See it for yourselves. 

This man's act, changeable because alive! 

Action now shrouds, nor shows the informing thought ; 

Man, like a glass ball with a spark a-top. 

Out of the magic fire that lurks inside, 1360 

Shows one tint at a time to take the eye : 

Which, let a finger touch the silent sleep. 

Shifted a hair's-breadth shoots you dark for bright. 

Suffuses bright with dark, and baffles so 

Your sentence absolute for shine or shade. 1365 

Once set such orbs, — white styled, black stigmatized, — 

' Holpen : old form, past participle of help. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 33 

A-rolling, see them once on the other side 

Your good men and your bad men every one 

From Guido Franceschini to Guy Faux, 

Oft would you rub your eyes and change your names. 1370 

Such, British Public, ye who like me not, 

(God love you!) — whom I yet have labored for, 

Perchance more careful whoso runs may read 

Than erst when all, it seemed, could read whoran, — 

Perchance more careless whoso reads may praise 1375 

Than late when he who praised and read and wrote 

Was apt to find himself the self-same me, — 

Such labor had such issue, so I wrought 

This arc, by furtherance of such alloy. 

And so, by one spirt, take away its trace 1380 

Till, justifiably golden, rounds my ring. 

A ring without a posy,i and that ring mine? 

O lyric Love, half angel and half bird 

And all a wonder and a wild desire, — 

Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun, 1385 

Took sanctuary within the holier blue. 

And sang a kindred soul out to his face, — 

Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart — 

When the first summons from the darkling earth 

Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue, 1390 

And bared them of the glory — to drop down. 

To toil for man, to sutler or to die, — 

This is the same voice : can thy soul know change? 

Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help! 

Never may I commence my song, my due 1395 

To God who best taught song by gift of thee. 

Except with bent head and beseeching hand — 

That still, despite the distance and the dark. 

What was, again may be ; some interchange 

Of grace, some splendor once thy very thought, 1400 

Some benediction anciently thy smile : 

— Never conclude, but raising hand and head 

Thither where eyes, that cannot reach, yet yearn 

For all hope, all sustainment, all reward. 

Their utmost up and on, — so blessing back 1405 

In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home. 

Some whiteness which, I judge, thy face makes proud, 

Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall! 

1 Posy : a motto or rhyme engraved inside a ring. 



34 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 



II. 

HALF-ROME. 

[Book II. gives the facts of the story ending in the murder as known to the gen- 
eral puljlic and colored by the partisanship of the speaker for wronged husbands. 
His sympathies are, therefore, with Guido, and he is the mouthpiece of one half 
Rome. The scene is by the church of San Lorenzo, in and out of which has 
surged all day a crowd, curious to view Guide's victims, Pietro and Violante.] 

What, j'ou, Sir, come too? (Just the man I 'd meet.) 

Be ruled by me and have a care o' the crowd : 

This way, while fresh folk go and get their gaze : 

I '11 tell you like a book and save your shins. 

Fie, what a roaring day we've had! Whose fault? 5 

Lorenzo in Lucina,i — here 's a church 

To hold a crowd at need, accommodate 

All comers from the Corso! - If this crush 

Make not its priests ashamed of what they show 

For temple-room, don't prick them to draw purse 10 

And down with bricks and mortar, eke us out 

The beggarly transept with its bit of apse 

Into a decent space for Christian ease, 

Why, to-day's lucky pearl is cast to swine. 

Listen and estimate the luck they've had! 15 

(The right man, and I hold him.) 

Sir, do you see, 
They laid both bodies in the church, this morn 
The first thing, on the chancel two steps up. 
Behind the little marble balustrade : 

Disposed them, Pietro the old murdered fool 20 

To the right of the altar, and his wretched wife 
On the other side. In trying to count stabs, 
People supposed Violante showed the most, 
Till somebody e.xplained us that mistake ; 
His wounds had been dealt out indifferent where, 25 

But she took all her stabbings in the face. 
Since punished thus solely for honor's sake, 
Honoris causa, that's the proper term. 

1 Lorenzo in Luciiia : a church in the - Corso : the principal thoroughfare of 

small square of San Lorenzo, opening out of Rome, 
the Corso. Founded in the fifth century, 
rebuilt by Paul V. 1606. 



HALF-ROME. 



35 



A delicacy there is, our gallants hold. 

When you avenge your honor and only then, 30 

That you disfigure the subject, fray the face, 

Not just take life and end, in clownish guise. 

It was Violante gave the first oifence, 

Got therefore the conspicuous punishment : 

While Pietro, who helped merely, his mere death 35 

Answered the purpose, so his face went free. 

We fancied even, free as you please, that face 

Showed itself still intolerably wronged ; 

Was wrinkled over with resentment yet, 

Nor calm at all, as murdered faces use, 40 

Once the worst ended : an indignant air 

O' the head there was — 't is said the body turned 

Round and away, rolled from Violante's side 

Where they had laid it loving-husband-like. 

If so, if corpses can be sensitive, 45 

Why did not he roll right down altar-step. 

Roll on through nave, roll fairly out of church. 

Deprive Lorenzo of the spectacle. 

Pay back thus the succession of affronts 

Whereto this church had served as theatre? 50 

For see : at that same altar where he lies. 

To that same inch of step, was brought the babe 

For blessing after baptism, and there styled 

Pompilia, and a string of names beside. 

By his bad wife, some seventeen years ago, 55 

Who purchased her simply to palm on him. 

Flatter his dotage and defraud the heirs. 

Wait awhile! Also to this very step 

Did this Violante, twelve years afterward. 

Bring, the mock-mother, that child-cheat full-grown, 60 

Pompilia, in pursuance of her plot, 

And there brave God and man a second time 

By linking a new victim to the lie. 

There, having made a match unknown to him, 

She, still unknown to Pietro, tied the knot 65 

Which nothing cuts except this kind of knife ; 

Yes, made her daughter, as the girl was held, 

Marry a man, and honest man beside, 

And man of birth to boot, — clandestinely 

Because of this, because of that, because 70 

O' the deviPs will to work his worst for once, — 

Confident she could top her part at need 

And, when her husband must be told in turn. 

Ply the wife's trade, play off the sex's trick 

And, alternating worry with quiet qualms, 75 

Bravado with submissiveness, prettily fool 



36 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Her Pietro into patience : so it proved. 

Ay, 't is four years since man and wife they grew, 

This Guido Franceschini and this same 

Pompilia, foolishly thought, falsely declared 80 

A Comparini and the couple's child : 

Just at this altar where, beneath the piece 

Of Master Guido Reni,i Christ on cross,- 

Second to naught observable in Rome, 

That couple lie now, murdered yestereve. 85 

Even the bhnd can see a providence here. 

From dawn till now that it is growing dusk, 

A multitude has flocked and filled the church, 

Coming and going, coming back again. 

Till to count crazed one. Rome was at the show. 90 

People climbed up the columns, fought for spikes 

O' the chapel-rail to perch themselves upon, 

Jumped over and so laroke the wooden work 

Painted like porphyry to deceive the eye ; 

Serve the priests right! The organ-loft was crammed, 95 

Women were fainting, no few fights ensued. 

In short, it was a show repaid your pains : 

For. though their room was scant undoubtedly, 

Yet they did manage matters, to be just, 

A little at this Lorenzo. Body o' me! 100 

I saw a body e.xposed once . . . never mind! 

Enough that here the bodies had their due. 

No stinginess in wax, a row all round. 

And one big taper at each head and foot. 

So, people pushed their way, and took their turn, 105 

Saw, threw their eyes up, crossed themselves, gave place 

To pressure from behind, since all the world 

Knew the old pair, could talk the tragedy 

Over from first to last : Pompilia too. 

Those who had known her — what 't was worth to them! no 

Guide's acquaintance was in less request ; 

The Count had lounged somewhat too long in Rome, 

Made himself cheap ; with him were hand and glove 

Barbers and blear-eyed, as the ancient^ sings. 

Also he is alive and like to be : 115 

Had he considerately died, — aha! 

I jostled Luca Cini on his staff, 

' Guido Reni : a painter of the Bolognese ^ fhe ancient : Horace (" Satires " i. 7, 3, 
school (1574-1642). " Omnibus et lippis notum et tonsoribus "). 

2 Christ on Cross : represents the Cruci- 
fixion seen against a wild, stormy sky. 



HALF-ROME. yj 

Mute in the midst, the whole man one amaze, 

Staring amain and crossing brow and breast. 

'• How now?" asked I. '*'T is seventy years," quoth he, 120 

" Since I first saw, holding my father's hand, 

Bodies set forth : a many have I seen, 

Yet all was poor to this I live and see. 

Here the world's wickedness seals up the sum : 

What with Molinos' ^ doctrine and this deed, 125 

Antichrist surely comes and doomsday 's near. 

May I depart in peace, I have seen my see." 

" Depart then," I advised, '' nor block the road 

For youngsters still behindhand with such sights!" 

"Why no," rejoins the venerable sire, 130 

'' I know it 's horrid, hideous past belief. 

Burdensome far beyond what eye can bear ; 

But they do promise, when Pompilia dies 

r the course o' the day, — and she can't outlive night, — 

They'll bring her body also to expose 135 

Beside the parents, one, two, three abreast ; 

That were indeed a sight, which might I see, 

I trust I should not last to see the like! " 

Whereat I bade the senior spare his shanks, 

Since doctors give her till to-night to live, 140 

And tell us how the butchery happened. " Ah, 

But you can't know! " sighs he, " I '11 not despair : 

Beside I 'm useful at explaining things — 

As, how the dagger laid there at the feet. 

Caused the peculiar cuts ; I mind its make, 145 

Triangular i' the blade, a Genoese, 

Armed with those little hook-teeth on the edge 

To open in the flesh nor shut again : 

I like to teach a novice : I shall stay ! " 

And stay he did, and stay be sure he will. 150 

A personage came by the private door 

At noon to have his look : I name no names : 

Well then. His Eminence the Cardinal, 

Whose servitor in honorable sort 

Guido was once, the same who made the match, 155 

(Will you have the truth?) whereof we see etfect. 

No sooner whisper ran he was arrived 

Than up pops Curate Carlo, a brisk lad. 

Who never lets a good occasion slip. 

And volunteers improving the event. 160 

We looked he 'd give the history's self some help, 

Treat us to how the wife's confession went 

' Molinos' doctrine : see note, I. 303. 



38 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

(This morning she confessed her crime, we know) 

And, maybe, throw in something of the Priest — 

If he 's not ordered back, punished anew, 165 

The gallant, Caponsacchi, Lucifer 

r the garden where Pompilia, Eve-like, lured 

Her Adam Guido to his fault and fall. 

Think you we got a sprig of speech akin 

To this from Carlo, with the Cardinal there? 170 

Too wary he was, too widely awake, I trow. 

He did the murder in a dozen words ; 

Then said that all such outrages crop forth 

r the course of nature when Molinos' tares 

Are sown for wheat, flourish and choke the Church : 175 

So slid on to the abominable sect 

And the philosophic sin — we "ve heard all that. 

And the Cardinal too, (who book-made on the same)^ 

But, for the murder, left it where he found. 

Oh but he 's quick, the Curate, minds his game I 180 

And, after all, we have the main o" the fact : 

Case could not well be simpler, — mapped, as it were. 

We follow the murder's maze from source to sea. 

By the red line, past mistake : one sees indeed 

Not only how all was and must have been, • 185 

But cannot other than be to the end of time. 

Turn out here by the Ruspoli !- Do you hold 

Guido was so prodigiously to blame? 

A certain cousin of yours has told you so? 

Exactly! Here ^s a friend shall set you right, 190 

Let him but have the handsel^ of your ear. 

These wretched Comparini were once gay 

And galliard,'' of the modest middle class : 

Born in this quarter seventy years ago 

And married young, they lived the accustomed life, 195 

Citizens as they were of good repute : 

And, childless, naturally took their ease 

With only their two selves to care about 

And use the wealth for : wealthy is the word. 

Since Pietro was possessed of house and land — 200 

And specially one house, when good days smiled, 

In Via Vittoria, the aspectable street 

Where he lived mainly ; but another house 

Of less pretension did he buy betimes. 

The villa, meant for jaunts and jollity, 205 

1 Cardinal, who book-made on the same : ^ Ruspoli : palace on the Corso. 

two or three books on the teachings of Molinos ' Handsel : first gift, 

were written by Cardinal d'Estrees. * Galliard : hnsM, 3lQI\\c. 



HALF-ROME. 39 

r the Pauline district, to be private there — 

Just what puts murder in an enemy's head. 

Moreover, — here 's the worm i' the core, the germ 

O' the rottenness and ruin which arrived, — 

He owned some usufruct, had moneys' use 210 

Lifelong, but to determine with his life 

In heirs' default : so, Pietro craved an heir, 

(The story always old and always new) 

Shut his fool's-eyes fast on the visible good 

And wealth for certain, opened them owl-wide 215 

On fortune's sole piece of forgetfulness, 

The child that should have been and would not be. 

Hence, seventeen years ago, conceive his glee 

When first Violante, 'twixt a smile and blush. 

With touch of agitation proper too, 220 

Announced that, spite of her unpromising age, 

The miracle would in time be manifest. 

An heir's birth was to happen: and it did. 

Somehow or other, — how, all in good time! 

Ry a trick, a sleight of hand you are to hear, — 225 

A child was born, Pompilia, for his joy, 

Plaything at once and prop, a fairy-gift, 

A saints' grace or, say, grant of the good God, — 

A fiddle-pin's end! What imbeciles are we! 

Look now : if some one could have prophesied, 230 

" For love of you. for liking to your wife, 

I undertake to crush a snake I spy 

Settling itself i' the soft of both your breasts. 

Give me yon babe to strangle painlessly! 

She '11 soar to the safe : you '11 have your crying out, 235 

Then sleep, then wake, then sleep, then end your days 

In peace and plenty, mixed with mild regret. 

Thirty years hence when Christmas takes old folk" — 

How had old Pietro sprung up, crossed himself, 

And kicked the conjurer! Whereas you and I, 240 

Being wise with after-wit, had clapped our hands ; 

Nay, added, in the old fool's interest, 

" Strangle the black-eyed babe, so far so good, 

But on condition you relieve the man 

O' the wife and throttle him Violante too — 245 

She is the mischief! " 

We had hit the mark. 
She, whose trick had brought the babe into the world, 
She it was, when the babe was grown a girl. 
Judged a new trick should reinforce the old. 
Send vigor to the lie now somewhat spent 250 



40 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

By twelve years' service ; lest Eve's rule decline 

Over this Adam of hers, whose cabbage-plot 

Throve dubiously since turned fools'-paradise, 

Spite of a nightingale on every stump. 

Pietro's estate was dwindling day by day. 255 

While he, rapt far above such mundane care, 

Crawled all-fours with his baby pick-a-back, 

Sat at serene cats'-cradle with his child. 

Or took the measured tallness, top to toe. 

Of what was grown a great girl twelve years old : 260 

Till sudden at the door a tap discreet, 

A visitor's premonitory cough, 

And poverty had reached him in her rounds. 

This came when he was past the working-time. 

Had learned to dandle and forgot to dig, 265 

And who must but Violante cast about. 

Contrive and task that head of hers again? 

She who had caught one fish, could make that catch 

A bigger still, in angler's policy : 

So. with an angler's mercy for the bait, 270 

Her minnow was set wriggling on its barb 

And tossed to mid-stream ; which means, this grown girl 

With the great eyes and bounty of black hair 

And first crisp youth that tempts a jaded taste. 

Was whisked i' the way of a certain man, who snapped. 275 

Count Guido Franceschini the Aretine ^ 

Was head of an old noble house enough. 

Not over-rich, you can't have everything. 

But such a man as riches rub against. 

Readily stick to, — one with a right to them 280 

Born in the blood : 't was in his very brow 

Always to knit itself against the world. 

Beforehand so, when that world stinted due 

Service and suit : the world ducks and defers. 

As such folks do, he had come up to Rome 285 

To better his fortune, and, since many years, 

Was friend and follower of a cardmal ; 

Waiting the rather thus on providence 

That a shrewd younger poorer brother yet, 

The Abate Paolo, a regular priest, 290 

Had long since tried his powers and found he swam 

With the deftest on the Galilean pool : 

But then he was a web-foot, free o' the wave. 

And no ambiguous dab-chick - hatched to strut, 

' Aretine : native of Arezzo. ^ Dab-ehick : a small-sized grebe, a genus 



HALF-ROME. 41 

Humbled by any fond attempt to swim 295 

When fiercer fowl usurped his dunghill top — 

A whole priest. Paolo, no mere piece of one 

Like Guido tacked thus to the Churches tail !^ 

Guido moreover, as the head o' the house, 

Claiming the main prize, not the lesser luck, 300 

The centre lily, no mere chickweed fringe. 

He waited and learned waiting, thirty years ; 

Got promise, missed performance — what would you have? 

No petty post rewards a nobleman 

For spending youth in splendid lackey-work, 305 

And there 's concurrence for each rarer prize ; 

When that falls, rougher hand and readier foot 

Push aside Guido spite of his black looks. 

The end was, Guido. when the warning showed, 

The first white hair i' the glass, gave up the game, 310 

Determined on returning to his town, 

Making the best of bad incurable. 

Patching the old palace up and lingering there 

The customary life out with his kin. 

Where honor helps to spice the scanty bread. 315 

Just as he trimmed his lamp and girt his loins 

To go his journey and be wise at home. 

In the right mood of disappointed worth, 

Who but Violante sudden spied her prey 

(Where was I with that angler-simile ? ) 320 

And threw her bait, Pompilia, where he sulked — 

A gleam i* the gloom! 

What if he gained thus much, 
Wrung out this sweet drop from the bitter Past. 
Bore off" this rose-bud from the prickly brake 
To justify such torn clothes and scratched hands, 325 

And, after all, brought something back from Rome? 
Would not a wife serve at Arezzo well 
To light the dark house, lend a look of youth 
To the mother's face grown meagre, left alone 
And famished with the emptiness of hope, 330 

Old Donna Beatrice? Wife you want 
Would you play family-representative. 
Carry you elder-brotherly, high and right 
O'er what may prove the natural petulance 

of diving birds, frequenting rivers and fresh- ing's use of the allusion appears to be at fault 

water lakes. Its movements on land are here. 

ungainly, but it swims gracefully. Brown- ' Church's tail : see note, I. 260. 



42 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Of the third brother, younger, greedier still, 335 

Girolamo, also a fledgeling priest, 

Beginning life in turn with callow beak 

Agape for luck, no luck had stopped and stilled. 

Such were the pinks and grays about the bait 

Persuaded Guido gulp down hook and all. 340 

What constituted him so choice a catch, 

You question? Past his prime and poor beside! 

Ask that of any she who knows the trade. 

Why first, here was a nobleman with friends, 

A palace one might run to and be safe 345 

When presently the threatened fate should fall, 

A big-browed master to block doorway up, 

Parley with people bent on pushing by 

And praying the mild Pietro quick clear scores : 

Is birth a privilege and power or no? 350 

Also, — but judge of the result desired. 

By the price paid and manner of the sale. 

The Count was made woo, win and wed at once : 

Asked, and was haled for answer, lest the heat 

Should cool, to San Lorenzo, one blind eve, 355 

And had Pompilia put into his arms 

C the sly there, by a hasty candle-blink. 

With sanction of some priest-confederate 

Properly paid to make short work and sure. 

So did old Pietro"s daughter change her style 360 

For Guido Franceschini's lady-wife 

Ere Guido knew it well ; and why this haste 

And scramble and indecent secrecy? 

" Lest Pietro, all the while in ignorance. 

Should get to learn, gainsay and break the match : 365 

His peevishness had promptly put aside 

Such honor and refused the proffered boon. 

Pleased to become authoritative once. 

She remedied the wilful man's mistake — " 

Did our discreet Violante. Rather say, 370 

Thus did she. lest the object of her game, 

Guido the gulled one, give him but a chance, 

A moment's respite, time for thinking twice. 

Might count the cost before he sold himself, 

And try the clink of coin they paid him with. 375 

But coin paid, bargain struck and business done, 
Once the clandestine marriage over thus. 
All parties made perforce the best o' the fact ; 
Pietro could play vast indignation off, 



HALF-ROME. 43 

Be ignorant and astounded, dupe, poor soul, 380 

Please you, of daughter, wife and son-in-law, 

While Guido found himself in flagrant fault, 

Must e'en do suit and service, soothe, subdue 

A father not unreasonably chafed. 

Bring him to terms by paying son's devoir. 385 

Pleasant initiation! 

The end, this : 
Guido's broad back was saddled to bear all — 
Pietro, Violante, and Pompilia too, — 
Three lots cast confidently in one lap. 

Three dead-weights with one arm to lift the three 390 

Out of their limbo up to life again. 
The Roman household was to strike fresh root 
In a new soil, graced with a novel name, 
Gilt with an alien glory, Aretine 

Henceforth and never Roman any more, 395 

By treaty and engagement ; thus it ran : 
Pompilia's dowry for Pompilia's self 
As a thing of course, — she paid her own expense ; 
No loss nor gain there : but the couj^le, you see. 
They, for their part, turned over first of all 400 

Their fortune in its rags and rottenness 
To Guido, fusion and confusion, he 
And his with them and theirs, — whatever rag 
With coin residuary fell on floor 

When Brother Paolo's energetic shake 405 

Should do the relics justice : since 't was thought. 
Once \^ulnerahle Bietro out of reach. 
That, left at Rome as representative. 
The Abate, backed by a potent patron here, 
And otherwise with purple flushing him, 410 

Might play a good game with the creditor, 
Make up a moiety which, great or small, 
Should go to the" common stock — if anything, 
Guide's, so far repayment of the cost 

About to be, — and if, as looked more like, 415 

Nothing, — why, all the nobler cost were his 
Who guaranteed, for better or for worse. 
To Pietro and Violante. house and home. 
Kith and kin, with the pick of company 

And life o' the fat o' the land while life should last. 4-° 

How say you to the bargain at first blush? 
Why did a middle-aged not-silly man 
Show himself thus besotted all at once? 
Quoth Solomon,! one black eye does it all. 

1 Quoth Solomon : Solomon's Song iv. g. 



44 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

They went to Arezzo, — Pietro and his spouse, 425 

With just the dusk o' the day of life to spend, 

Eager to use the twilight, taste a treat. 

Enjoy for once with neither stay nor stint 

The luxury of lord-and-lady-ship, 

And realize the stuff and nonsense long 430 

A-simmer in their noddles ; vent the fume 

Born there and bred, the citizen's conceit 

How fares nobility while crossing earth, 

What rampart or invisible body-guard 

Keeps off the taint of common life from such. 435 

They had not fed for nothing on the tales 

Of grandees who give banquets worthy Jove, 

Spending gold as if Plutus ^ paid a whim. 

Served with obeisances as when . . . what God? 

I 'm at the end of my tether ; 't is enough 440 

You understand what they came primed to see : 

While Guido who should minister the sight, 

Stay all this qualmish greediness of soul 

With apples and with flagons — for his part, 

Was set on life diverse as pole from pole : 445 

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, — what else 

Was he just now awake from, sick and sage. 

After the very debauch they would begin? — 

Suppose such stufT and nonsense really were. 

That bubble, they were bent on blowing big, 450 

He had blown already till he burst his cheeks. 

And hence found soapsuds bitter to the tongue. 

He hoped now to walk softly all his days 

In soberness of spirit, if haply so, • 

Pinching and paring he might furnish forth 455 

A frugal board, bare sustenance, no more. 

Till times, that could not well grow worse, should mend. 

Thus minded then, two parties mean to meet 

And make each other happy. The first week. 

And fancy strikes fact and explodes in full. 460 

" This," shrieked the Comparini, "this the Count, 

The palace, the signorial privilege, 

The pomp and pageantry were promised us? 

For this have we exchanged our liberty. 

Our competence, our darling of a child? 465 

To house as spectres in a sepulchre 

Under this black stone-heap, the street's disgrace. 

Grimmest as that is of the gruesome town. 

And here pick garbage on a pewter plate 

' Plutus : God of Wealth, son of Jasion and Ceres. 



HALF-ROME. 45 

Or cough at verjuice ^ dripped from earthenware? 47° 

Oh Via Vittoria, oh the other place 

r the Pauline, did we give you up for this? 

Where 's the foregone housekeeping good and gay, 

The neighborliness, the companionship, 

The treat and feast when holidays came round, 475 

The daily feast that seemed no treat at all, 

Called common by the uncommon fools we were! 

Even the sun that used to shine at Rome, 

Where is it? Robbed and starved and frozen too, 

We will have justice, justice if there be !" 4''^° 

Did not they shout, did not the town resound! 

Guide's old lady-mother Beatrice, 

Who since her husband, Count Tommaso's death. 

Had held sole sway i' the house, — the doited- crone 

Slow to acknowledge, curtsey and abdicate, — 4^5 

Was recognized of true novercal '^ type. 

Dragon and devil. His brother Girolamo 

Came next in order : priest was he ? The worse ! 

No way of winning him to leave his mumps 

And help the laugh against old ancestry 49° 

And formal habits long since out of date. 

Letting his youth be patterned on the mode 

Approved of where Violante laid down law. 

Or did he brighten up by way of change, 

Dispose himself for affability ? ' 495 

The malapert, too complaisant by half 

To the alarmed young novice of a bride ! 

Let him go buzz, betake himself elsewhere 

Nor singe his fly-wings in the candle-flame! 

Four months' probation of this purgatory, 500 

Dog-snap and cat-claw, curse and counterblast, 
' ^ The devil's self were sick of his own din ; 
"'/ "^ 'Xi>,' ^^^ Pietro, after trumpeting huge wrongs 
^'■'^'y' At church and market-place, pillar ancl post. 

Square's corner, street's end, now the palace-step _ 505 

And now the wine-house bench — while, on her side, 

Violante up and down was voluble 

In whatsoever pair of ears would perk 

From goody, gossip, cater-cousin * and sib,^ 

Curious to peep at the inside of things 510 

1 ;->r;'«2V<' .• juice of sour apples or unripe ^Novercal: in the manner of a step- 
grapes, mother. 

2 Doited : adjective formed from doit, a ^ Cater-cousin : a cousin within the first 
Scotch coin of small value = worthless. four degrees of kindred. 

" Si6 : a blood relation. 



46 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And catch in the act pretentious poverty 

At its wits' end to keep appearance up, 

Make both ends meet, — nothing the vulgar loves 

Like what this couple pitched them right and left. 

Then, their worst done that way, both struck tent, marched: 515 

— Renounced their share o' the bargain, flung what dues 

Guido was bound to pay, in Guide's face. 

Left their hearts''-darling, treasure of the twain 

And so forth, the poor inexperienced bride, 

To her own devices, bade Arezzo rot, 520 

Cursed life signorial, and souglit Rome once more. 

I see the comment ready on your lip, 

" The better fortune, Guido's — free at least 

By this defection of the foohsh pair, 

He could begin make profit in some sort 525 

Of the young bride and the new quietness, 

Lead his own life now, henceforth breathe unplagued." 

Could he? You know the sex like Guide's self. 

Learn the Violante-nature! 

Once in Rome, 
By way of helping Guido lead such life, 530 

Her first act to inaugurate return 
Was, she got pricked in conscience : Jubilee ^ 
Gave her the hint. Our Pope, as kind as just, 
Attained his eighty years, announced a boon 

Should make us bless the fact, held Jubilee — 535 

Short shrift, prompt pardon for the light oiTence 
And no rough dealing with the regular crime 
So this occasion were not suffered slip — 
Otherwise, sins commuted as before. 

Without the least abatement in the price. 540 

Now, who had thought it? All this while, it seems, 
Our sage Violante had a sin of a sort 
She must compound for now or not at all. 
Now be the ready riddance! She confessed 

Pompilia was a fable not a fact : ' 545 

She never bore a child in her whole life. 
Had this child been a changeling, that were grace 
In some degree, exchange is hardly theft, 
You take your stand on truth ere leap your lie : 
Here was all lie, no touch of truth at all, 550 

All the lie hers — not even Pietro guessed 
He was as childless still as twelve years since. 
The babe had been a find i' the filth-heap, Sir, 

1 Jubilee : held every twenty-fifth year. 



HALF-ROME. 47 

Catch from the kennel! There was found at Rome, 

Down in the deepest of our social dregs, 555 

A woman who professed the wanton's trade 

Under the requisite thin coverture, 

Coinmutiis meretrix and washer-wife : 

The creature thus conditioned found by chance 

Motherhood hke a jewel in the muck, 560 

And straightway either trafficked with her prize 

Or listened to the tempter and let be, — 

Made pact abolishing her place and part 

In womankind, beast-fellowship indeed. 

She sold this babe eight months before its birth 565 

To our Violante, Pietro's honest spouse. 

Well-famed and widely-instanced as that crown 

To the husband, virtue in a woman's shape. 

She it was, bought, paid for, passed off the thing 

As very flesh and blood and child of her 570 

Despite the flagrant fifty years, — and why? 

Partly to please old Pietro, fill his cup 

With wine at the late hour when lees are left, 

And send him from life's feast rejoicingly, — 

Partly to cheat the rightful heirs, agape, 575 

Each uncle's cousin's brother's son of him. 

For that same principal of the usufruct ^ 

It vext him he must die and leave behind. 



Such was the sin had come to be confessed. 

Which of the tales, the first or last, was true? 580 

Did she so sin once, or. confessing now. 

Sin for the first time? Either way you will. 

One sees a reason for the cheat : one sees 

A reason for a cheat in owning cheat 

Where no cheat had been. What of the revenge? 585 

What prompted the contrition all at once, 

Made the avowal easy, the shame slight? 

Why. prove they but Pompilia not their child. 

No child, no dowry! this, supposed their child. 

Had claimed what this, shown alien to their blood. 590 

Claimed nowise : Guido's claim was through his wife, 

Null then and void with hers. The biter bit, 

Do you see! For such repayment of the past. 

One might conceive the penitential pair 

Ready to bring their case before the courts, 595 

'^ Principal of the usufruct: i.e. the principal sum, in which Pietro had only a life- 
interest or usufruct. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Publish their infamy to all the world 

And, arm in arm, go chuckling thence content. 

Is this your view? 'T was Guido's anyhow 

And colorable : he came forward then, 

Protested in his very bride's behalf 600 

Against this lie and all it led to, least 

Of all the loss o' the dowry ; no! From her 

And him alike he would expunge the blot, 

Erase the brand of such a bestial birth. 

Participate in no hideous heritage 605 

Gathered from the gutter to be garnered up > 

And glorified in a palace. Peter and Paul! 

But that who likes may look upon the pair 

Exposed in yonder church, and show his skill 

By saying which is eye and which is mouth 610 

Thro' those stabs thick and threefold, — but for that — 

A strong word on the liars and their lie 

Might crave expression and obtain it, Sir! 

— Though prematurely, since there's more to come, 

More that will shake your confidence in things 615 

Your cousin tells you, — may I be so bold? 

This makes tlie first act of the farce, — anon 

The sombre element comes stealing in 

Till all is black or blood-red in the piece. 

Guido, thus made a laughing-stock abroad, 620 

A proverb for the market-place at home. 

Left alone with Pompilia now, this graft 

So reputable on his ancient stock. 

This plague-seed set to fester his sound flesh. 

What does the Count? Revenge him on his wife? 625 

Unfasten at all risks to rid himself 

The noisome Jazar-badge, fall foul of fate. 

And, careless whether the poor rag was 'ware 

O the part it played, or helped unwittingly. 

Bid it go burn and leave his frayed flesh free? 630 

Plainly, did Guido open both doors wide. 

Spurn thence the cur-cast creature and clear scores 

As man might, tempted in extreme like this ? 

No, birth and breeding, and compassion too 

Saved her such scandal. She was young, he thought, 635 

Not privy to the treason, punished most 

I' the proclamation of it ; why make her 

A party to the crime she suffered by? 

Then the black eyes were now her very own, 

Not any more \'iolante's : let her live, 640 



HALF-ROME. 49 

Lose in a new air. under a new sun, 
The taint of the imputed parentage 
Truly or falsely, take no more the touch 
Of Pietro and his partner artyhow! 
All might go well yet. 

So she thought, herself, 645 

It seems, since what was her first act and deed 
When news came how these kindly ones at Rome 
Had stripped her naked to amuse the world 
With spots here, spots there and spots everywhere? 
• — For I should tell you that they noised abroad 650 

Not merely the main scandal of her birth, 
But slanders written, printed, published wide, 
Pamphlets which set forth all the pleasantry 
Of how the promised glory was a dream. 
The power a bubble, and the wealth — why, dust. 655 

There was a picture, painted to the life, 
Of those rare doings, that superlative 
Initiation in magnificence 
Conferred on a poor Roman family 

By favor of Arezzo and her first 660 

And famousest, the Franceschini there. 
You had the Countship holding head aloft 
Bravely although bespattered, shifts and straits 
In keeping out o' the way o' the wheels o' the world, 
The comic of those home-contrivances 665 

When the old lady-mother's wit was taxed 
To find six clamorous mouths in food more real 
Than fruit plucked off the cobwebbed family-tree. 
Or acorns shed from its gilt mouldered frame — 
Cold glories served up with stale fame for sauce. 670 

What, I ask, — when the drunkenness of hate 
Hiccuped return for hospitality. 
Befouled the table they had feasted on. 
Or say, — God knows I '11 not prejudge the case, — 
Grievances thus distorted, magniiied, 675 

Colored by quarrel into calumny, — 
What side did our Pompilia first espouse? 
Her first deliberate measure was — she wrote, 
Pricked by some loyal impulse, straight to Rome 
And her husband's brother the Abate there, 680 

Who, having managed to effect the match. 
Might take men's censure for its ill success. 
She made a clean breast also in her turn. 
And qualified the couple properly, 

Since whose departure, hell, she said, was heaven, 685 

And the house, late distracted by their peals. 



50 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Quiet as Carmel ^ where the lilies live. 

Herself had oftentimes complained : but why? 

All her complaints had been their prompting, tales 

Trumped up, devices to fhis very end. 690 

Their game had been to thwart her husband's love 

And cross his will, malign his words and ways, 

To reach this issue, furnish this pretence 

For impudent withdrawal from their bond, — 

Theft, indeed murder, since they meant no less 695 

Whose last injunction to her simple self 

Had been — what parents'-precept do you think? 

That she should follow after with all speed, 

Fly from her husband's house clandestinely, 

Join them at Rome again, but first of all 700 

Pick up a fresh companion in her flight. 

So putting youth and beauty to fit use, — 

Some gay dare-devil cloak-and-rapier spark 

Capable of adventure, — helped by whom 

She, some fine eve when lutes were in the air, 705 

Having put poison in the posset --cup. 

Laid hands on money, jewels and the like. 

And, to conceal the thing with more effect. 

By wav of parting benediction too. 

Fired the house, — one would finish famously 710 

r the tumult, slip out. scurry oft' and away 

And turn up merrily at home once more. 

Fact this, and not a dream o' the devil. Sir! 

And more than this, a fact none dare dispute, 

Word for word, such a letter did she write, 715 

And such the Abate read, nor simply read 

But gave all Rome to ruminate upon. 

In answer to such charges as, I say. 

The couple sought to be beforehand with. 

The cause thus carried to the courts at Rome, 720 

Guido away, the Abate had no choice 

But stand forth, take his absent brother's part. 

Defend the honor of himself beside. 

He made what head he might against the pair. 

Maintained Pompilia's birth legitimate 725 

And all her rights intact — hers, Guido's now: 

And so far by his policy turned their flank. 

(The enemy being beforehand in the place) 

That, — though the courts allowed the cheat for fact, 

^ Carmel : Mount Carmel in Syria, where ^ Posset : a drink made of milk and wine, 

the Carmelite order of mendicant monks was « 

said to be established. They wore white. 



HALF-ROME. 5^ 

Suffered Violante to parade her shame, 73° 

Publish her infamy to heart's content, 

And let the tale o' the feigned birth pass for proved, — 

Yet they stopped there, refused to intervene 

And dispossess the innocents, befooled 

By gifts o' the guilty, at guilfs new caprice. 735 

The)' would not take away the dowry now 

Wrongfully given at tirst, nor bar at all 

Succession to the aforesaid usufruct, 

Established on a fraud, nor play the game 

Of Pietro's child and now not Pietro's chdd 74° 

As it might suit the gamester's purpose. Thus 

Was justice ever ridiculed in Rome : 

Such be the double verdicts favored here 

Which send away both parties to a suit 

Nor puffed up nor cast down, — for each a crumb 745 

Of right, for neither of them the whole loaf. 

Whence, on the Comparini's part, appeal — 

Counter-appeal on Guido"s, — that 's the game : 

And so the matter stands, even to this hour, 

Bandied as balls are in a tennis-court, __ 75° 

And so might stand, unless some heart broke first, 

Till doomsday. 

Leave it thus, and now revert -y 

To the old Arezzo whence we moved to Rome. /L ■-'■'- 

We've had enough o' the parents, false or true, p,''- 

Now for a touch o' the daughter's quality. / 755 

The start 's fair henceforth, every obstacle 
Out of the young wife's footpath, she 's alone. 
Left to walk warily now : how does she walk ? 
Why, once a dwelling's threshold marked and crossed 
In rubric by the enemy on his rounds 7^0 

As eligible,' as fit place of prey. 
Baffle him henceforth, keep him out who can! 
Stop up the door at the first hint of hoof. 
Presently at the window taps a horn. 

And Satan 's by your fireside, never fear! 7^S 

Pompilia, left alone now, found herself; 
Found herself young too, sprightly, fair enough. 
Matched with a husband old beyond his age 
(Though that was something like four times her own) 
Because of cares past, present and to come : 77° 

Found too the house dull and its inmates dead. 
So, looked outside for light and life. 

And love 
Did in a trice turn up with life and light, — 
The man with the aureole, sympathy made flesh, 



52 



THE RIXG AXD THE BOOK. 

The all-consoling Caponsacchi, Sir! 775 

A priest — what else should the consoler be ? 

With goodly shoulderblade and proper leg. 

A portly make and a symmetric shape. 

And curls that clustered to the tonsure quite. 

This was a bishop in the bud, and now 780 

A canon full-blown so far : priest, and priest 

Nowise exorbitantly overworked. 

The courtly Christian, not so much Saint Paul 

As a saint of Caesar's household : there posed he 

Sending his god-glance after his shot shaft, 785 

Apollos turned Apollo, while the snake 

Pompilia writhed transfixed through all her spires. 

He, not a visitor at Guidons house. 

Scarce an acquaintance, but in prime request 

With the magnates of Arezzo, was seen here, 790 

Heard there, felt everywhere in Guido's path 

If Guido's wife's path be her husband's too. 

Now he threw comfits at the theatre 

Into her lap, — what harm in Carnival? 

Now he pressed close till his foot touched her gown, 795 

His hand brushed hers. — how help on promenade? 

And, ever on weighty business, found his steps 

Incline to a certain haunt of doubtful fame 

Which fronted Guido's palace by mere chance ; 

WHiile — how do accidents sometimes combine! — 800 

Pompilia chose to cloister, up her charms 

Just in a chamber that o'erlooked the street. 

Sat there to pray, or peep thence at mankind. 

This passage of arms and wits amused the town. 

At last the husband lifted eyebrow. — bent 805 

On day-book and the study how to wring 

Half the due vintage from the worn-out vines 

At the villa, tease a quarter the old rent 

From the farmstead, tenants swore would tumble soon, — 

Pricked up his ear a-singing day and night 810 

With '• ruin, ruin ; " — and so surprised at last — ■ 

Why, what else but a titter? Up he jumps. 

Back to mind come those scratchings at the grange, 

Prints of the paw about the outhouse ; rife 

In his head at once again are word and wink, 815 

A fit//! here and budget'^ there, the smell o' the fox. 

The musk o' the gallant. "Friends, there's falseness here!" 

The proper help of friends in such a strait 

' Miint, Budget : see Shakespeare, " Merry Wives of Windsor," V. ii, 7. 



HALF-ROME. 53 

Is waggery, the world over. Laugh him free 

O' the regular jealous-tit that 's incident 820 

To all old husbands that wed brisk young wives, 

And he'll go duly docile all his days. 

" Somebody courts your wife, Count? Where and when? 

How and why? Mere horn-madness : have a care! 

Your lady loves her own room, sticks to it, 825 

Locks herself in for hours, you say yourself. 

And — what, it's Caponsacchi means you harm? 

The Canon? We caress him, he's the world's, 

A man of such acceptance — never dream, 

Though he were fifty times the fox you fear, 830 

He 'd risk his brush for your particular chick, 

When the wide town 's his hen-roost! Fie o' the fool! " 

So they dispensed their comfort of a kind. 

Guido at last cried '• Something is in the air, 

LTnder the earth, some plot against my peace 835 

The trouble of eclipse hangs overhead ; 

How it should come of that officious orb 

Your Canon in my system, you must say : 

I say — that from the pressure of this spring 

Began the chime and interchange of bells, 840 

Ever one whisper, and one whisper more. 

And just one whisper for the silvery last, 

Till ail at once a-row the bronze-throats burst 

Into a larum both significant 

And sinister: stop it I must and will. 845 

Let Caponsacchi take his hand away 

From the wire! — disport himself in other paths 

Than lead precisely to my palace-gate. — 

Look where he likes except one window's way 

Where, cheek on hand, and elbow set on sill, 850 

Happens to lean and say her litanies 

Every day and all day long, just my wife — 

Or wife and Caponsacchi may fare the worse! " 

Admire the man's simplicity, " I '11 do this, 

I '11 not have that, I '11 punish and prevent! " — 855 

'T is easy saying. But to a frav, you see. 

Two parties go. The badger shows his teeth : 

The fox nor lies down sheep-like nor dares fight. 

Oh, the wife knew the appropriate warfare well, 

The way to put suspicion to the blush ! 860 

At first hint of remonstrance, up and out 

r the face of the world, you found her : she could speak, 

State her case, — Franceschini was a name, 

Guido had his full share of foes and friends — 

Why should not she call these to arbitrate? 865 



54 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

She bade the Governor do governance. 

Cried out on the Archbishop. — why, there now, 

Take him for sample! Three successive times, 

Had he to reconduct her by main-force 

From where she took her station opposite 870 

His shut door. — on the pubHc steps thereto. 

Wringing her hands, when he came out to see, 

And shrieking all her wrongs forth at his foot, — 

Back to the husband and the house she fled : 

Judge if that husband warmed him in the face 875 

Of friends or frowned on foes as heretofore! 

Judge if he missed the natural grin of folk, 

Or lacked the customary compliment 

Of cap and bells, the luckless husband's fit! 

So it went on and on till — who was right? 880 

One merry April morning. Guide woke 

After the cuckoo, so late, near noonday. 

With an inordinate yawning of the jaws, 

Ears plugged, eyes gummed together, palate, tongue 

And teeth one mud-paste made of poppy-milk ; 885 

And found his wife flown, his scritoire the worse 

For a rummage, — jewelry that was, was not. 

Some money there had made itself wings too, — 

The door lay wide and yet the servants slept 

Sound as the dead, or dosed which does as well. 890 

In short, Pompilia, she who, candid soul, 

Had not so much as spoken all her life 

To the Canon, nay, so much as peeped at him 

Between her fingers while she prayed in church, — 

This lamb-like innocent of fifteen years 895 

(Such she was grown to by this time of day) 

Had simply put an opiate in the drink 

Of the whole household overnight, and then 

Got up and gone about her work secure. 

Laid hand on this waif and the other stray. 900 

Spoiled the Philistine and marched out of doors 

In company of the Canon who. Lord's love. 

What with his daily duty at the church. 

Nightly devoir where ladies congregate. 

Had something else to mind, assure yourself, 905 

Beside Pompilia, paragon though she be. 

Or notice if her nose were sharp or blunt! 

Well, anvhow, albeit impossible. 

Both of them were together jollily 

Jaunting it Rome-ward, half-way there by this, 910 

While Guido was left go and get undrugged, 



HALF-ROME. 55 

Gather his wits up, groaningly give thanks 
When neighbors crowded round him to condole. 

" Ah," quoth a gossip, " well I mind me now, 

The Count did always say he thought he felt 915 

He feared as if this very chance might fall! 

And when a man of fifty finds his corns 

Ache and his joints throb, and foresees a storm, 

Though neighbors laugh and say the sky is clear, 

Let us henceforth believe him weatherwise! " 920 

Then was the story told, I 11 cut you short : 

All neighbors knew : no mystery in the world. 

The lovers left at nightfall — • over night 

Had Caponsacchi come to carry off 

Pompilia, — not alone, a friend of his, 925 

One Guillichini, the more conversant 

With Guido's housekeeping that he was just 

A cousin of Guido's and might play a prank — 

(Have not you too a cousin that 's a wag? ) 

— Lord and a Canon also, — what would you have? 930 

Such are the red-clothed milk-swollen poppy-heads 

That stand and stiffen 'mid the wheat o' the Church ! — 

This worthy came to aid, abet his best. 

And so the house was ransacked, booty bagged, 

The lady led downstairs and out of doors 935 

Guided and guarded till, the city passed, 

A carriage lay convenient at the gate. 

Good-bye to the friendly Canon ; the loving one 

Could peradventure do the rest himself. 

In jumps Pompilia, after her the priest, 940 

"Whip, driver! Money makes the mare to go. 

And we 've a bagful. Take the Roman road!" 

So said the neighbors. This was eight hours since. 

Guido heard all, swore the befitting oaths, 

Shook off the relics of his poison-drench, 945 

Got horse, was fairly started in pursuit 

With never a friend to follow, found the track 

Fast enough, 't was the straight Perugia way, 

Trod soon upon their very heels, too late 

By a minute only at Camoscia, reached 95° 

Chiusi, Foligno, ever the fugitives 

Just ahead, just out as he galloped in. 

Getting the good news ever fresh and fresh. 

Till, lo, at the last stage of all, last post 

Before Rome, — as we say, in sight of Rome 955 

And safety (there's impunity at Rome 

For priests, you know) at — what 's the little place ? — 



56 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

What some call Castelnuovo, some just call 

The Osteria,^ because o' the post-house inn, 

There, at the journey's all but end, it seems, 960 

Triumph deceived them and undid them both, 

Secure they might foretaste felicity 

Nor fear surprisal : so, they were surprised. 

There did they halt at early evening, there 

Did Guido overtake them : 't was day-break ; 965 

He came in time enough, not time too much. 

Since in the courtyard stood the Canon's self 

Urging the drowsy stable-grooms to haste 

Harness the horses, have the journey end. 

The trifling four-hours'-running, so reach Rome. 970 

And the other runaway, the wife? Upstairs, 

Still on the couch where she had spent the night, 

One couch in one room, and one room for both. 

So gained they six hours, so were lost thereby. 

Sir, what 's the sequel? Lover and beloved 975 

Fall on their knees? No impudence serves here? 

They beat their breasts and beg for easy death, 

Confess this, that and the other? — anyhow 

Confess there wanted not some likelihood 

To the supposition so preposterous, 980 

That. O Pompilia, thy sequestered eyes 

Had noticed, straying o'er the prayerbook's edge, 

More of the Canon than that black his coat, 

Buckled his shoes were, broad his hat of brim : 

And that, O Canon, thy religious care 985 

Had breathed too soft a benedicite 

To banish trouble from a lady's breast 

So lonely and so lovely, nor so lean! 

This you expect? Indeed, then, much you err. 

Not to such ordinary end as this 990 

Had Caponsacchi flung the cassock far. 

Doffed the priest, donned the perfect cavalier. 

The die was cast : over shoes over boots : 

And just as she. I presently shall show, 

Pompilia, soon looked Helen to the life, 995 

Recumbent upstairs in her pink and white. 

So, in the inn-yard, bold as 't were Troy-town, 

There strutted Paris in correct costume, 

Cloak, cap and feather, no appointment missed. 

Even to a wicked-looking sword at side, 1000 

He seemed to find and feel familiar at. 

Nor wanted words as ready and as big 

' Osteria : a tavern or inn. 



HALF-ROME. 57 

As the part he played, the bold abashless one. 

"I interposed to save your wife from death, 

Yourself from shame, the true and only shame : 1005 

Ask your own conscience else! — or, failing that, 

What I have done I answer, anywhere, 

Here, if you will ; you see I have a sword : 

Or, since I have a tonsure as you taunt, 

At Rome, by all means, — priests to try a priest. loio 

Only, speak where your wife's voice can reply! " 

And then he fingered at the sword again. 

So, Guido called, in aid and witness both. 

The Public Force. The Commissary came, 

Officers also ; they secured the priest ; 1015 

Then, for his more confusion, mounted up 

With him, a guard on either side, the stair 

To the bed-room where still slept or feigned a sleep 

His paramour and Guido's wife : in burst 

The company and bade her wake and rise. 1020 

Her defence? This. She woke, saw, sprang upright 

r the midst and stood as terrible as truth. 

Sprang to her husband's side, caught at the sword 

That hung there useless. — since they held each hand 

O' the lover, had disarmed him properly, — 1025 

And in a moment out flew the bright thing 

Full in the face of Guido : but for help 

O" the guards who held her back and pinioned her 

With pains enough, she had finished vou mv tale 

With a flourish of red all round it, pinked her man 1030 

Prettily ; but she fought them one to six. 

They stopped that, — but her tongue continued free: 

She spat forth such invective at her spouse. 

O'erfrothed him with such foam of murderer. 

Thief, pandar — that the popular tide soon turned, 1035 

The favor of the very sbirri} straight 

Ebbed from the husband, set toward his wife. 

People cried •• Hands off. pay a priest respect! " 

And " persecuting fiend " and " martyred saint " 

Began to lead a measure from lip to lip. 1040 

But facts are facts and flinch not ; stubborn things, 

And the question " Prithee, friend, how comes my purse 

r the poke of you ? " — admits of no reply. 

Here was a priest found out in masquerade, 

A wife caught playing truant if no more ; 1045 

^ Sbirri : papal police. 



58 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

While the Count, mortified in mien enough, 

And, nose to face, an added pahn in length. 

Was plain writ "husband" every piece of him : 

Capture once made, release could hardly be. 

Beside, the prisoners both made appeal, 1050 

" Take us to Rome! " 

Taken to Rome they were ; 
The husband trooping after, piteously, 
' Tail between legs, no talk of triumph now — 
No honor set firm on its feet once more 

On two dead bodies of the guilty, — nay, 1055 

No dubious salve to honor's broken pate 
From chance that, after all, the hurt might seem 
A skin-deep matter, scratch that leaves no scar : 
For Guido's first search, — ferreting, poor soul. 
Here, there and everywhere in the vile place 1060 

Abandoned to him when their backs Xvere turned, 
Found, — furnishing a last and best regale, — 
All the love-letters bandied 'twixt the pair 
Since the first timid trembling into life 

O' the love-star till its stand at fiery full. 1065 

Mad prose, mad verse, fears, hopes, triumph, despair. 
Avowal, disclaimer, plans, dates, names, — was nought 
Wanting to prove, if proof consoles at all. 
That this had been but the fifth act o' the piece 
Whereof the due proemium, months ago 1070 

These playwrights had put forth, and ever since 
Matured the middle, added 'neath his nose. 
He might go cross himself: the case was clear. 

Therefore to Rome with the clear case : there plead 

Each party its best, and leave law do each riglit, 1075 

Let law shine forth and show, as God in heaven. 

Vice prostrate, virtue pedestalled at last. 

The triumph of truth! What else shall glad our gaze 

When once authority has knit the brow 

And set the brain behind it to decide 1080 

Between the wolf and sheep turned litigants? 

"This is indeed a business!" law shook head : 

" A husband charges hard things on a wife. 

The wife as hard o' the husband : whose fault here? 

A wife that flies her husband's house, does wrong : 10S5 

The male friend's interference looks amiss, 

Lends a suspicion : but suppose the wife. 

On the other hand, be jeopardized at home — 

Nay. that she simply hold, ill-groundedly. 

An apprehension she is jeopardized, — 1090 

And further, if the friend partake the fear, 



HALF-ROME. 59 

And, in a commendable charity 

Which trusteth all, trust her that she mistrusts, — 

What do they but obey law — natural law? 

Pretence mav this be and a cloak for sin, I095 

And circumstances that concur i' the close 

Hint as much, loudly — yet scarce loud enough 

To drown the answer 'strange may yet be true : ' 

Innocence often looks like guiltiness. 

The accused declare that in thought, word and deed, iioo 

Innocent were they both from first to last 

As male-babe haply laid by female-babe 

At church on edge of the baptismal font 

Together for a minute, perfect-pure. 

Difficult to believe, yet possible, 1 105 

As witness Joseph, the friend's patron-saint. 

The night at the inn — there charity nigh chokes 

Ere swallow what they both asseverate ; 

Though down the gullet faith may feel it go, 

When mindful of what flight fatigued the flesh ilio 

Out of its faculty and fleshliness, 

Subdued it to the soul, as saints assure : 

So long a flight necessitates a fall 

On the first bed, though in a lion's den, 

And the first pillow, though the lion's back: 11 15 

Difficult to believe, yet possible. 

Last come the letters' bundled beastliness — 

Authority repugns ^ give glance to — nay, 

Turns head, and almost lets her whip-lash fall; 

Yet here a voice cries ' Respite ! ' from the clouds — 1 120 

The accused, both in a tale, protest, disclaim, 

Abominate the horror : ' Not my hand ' 

Asserts the friend — ' Nor mine' chimes in the wife, 

' Seeing I have no hand, nor write at all.' 

Illiterate — for she goes on to ask, 1 125 

What if the friend did pen now verse now prose. 

Commend it to her notice now and then ? 

"T was pearls to swine : she read no more than wrote. 

And kept no more than read, for as they fell 

She ever brushed the burr-like things away, 1 130 

Or, better, burned them, quenched the fire in smoke. 

As for this fardel,- filth and foolishness. 

She sees it now the first time : burn it too! 

While for his part the friend vows ignorance 

Alike of what bears his name and bears hers : i^SS 

'T is forgery, a felon's masterpiece, 

And, as 't is said the fox still finds the stench, 

^ Repugns : opposes. ' Fardel : bundle. 



6o THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Home-manufacture and the husband's work. 

Though he confesses, the ingenuous friend. 

That certain missives, letters of a sort, 1 140 

Flighty and feeble, which assigned themselves 

To the wife, no less have fallen, far too oft. 

In his path : wherefrom he understood just this — 

That were they verily the lady's own. 

Why, she who penned them, since he never saw 1 145 

Save for one minute the mere face of her. 

Since never had there been the interchange 

Of word with word between them all their life, 

Why, she must be the fondest of the frail. 

And fit, she for the 'apage'''^ he flung, 1 150 

Her letters for the flame they went to feed! 

But, now he sees her face and hears her speech. 

Much he repents him if, in fancy-freak 

For a moment the minutest measurable, 

He coupled her with the first flimsy word 1 155 

O' the self-spun fabric some mean spider-soul 

Furnished forth : stop his films and stamp on him! 

Never was such a tangled knottiness. 

But thus authority cuts the Gordian through. 

And mark how her decision suits the need! 1 160 

Here 's troublesomeness, scandal on both sides, 

Plenty of fault to find, no absolute crime : 

Let each side own its fault and make amends! 

What does a priest in cavalier's attire 

Consorting publicly with vagrant wives 1165 

In quarters close as the confessional. 

Though innocent of harm ? 'T is harm enough : 

Let him pay it, — say. be relegate a good 

Three years, to spend in some place not too far 

Nor yet too near, midway 'twixt near and far, 1 1 70 

Rome and Arezzo. — Civita we choose. 

Where he may lounge away time, live at large, 

Find out the proper function of a priest. 

Nowise an exile, — that were punishment, — 

But one our love thus keeps out of harm's way 1175 

Not more from the husband's anger than, mayhap 

His own . . . say, indiscretion, waywardness. 

And wanderings when Easter eves grow warm. 

For the wife, — well, our best step to take with her, 

On her own showing, were to shift her root 1180 

From the old cold shade and unhappy soil 

Into a generous ground that fronts the south 

Where, since her callow soul, a-shiver late, 

' Apage : away with thee. 



HALF-ROME. 6i 

Craved simply warmth and called mere passers-by 

To the rescue, she should have her fill of shine. 1185 

Do house and husband hinder and not help ? 

Why then, forget both and stay here at peace, 

Come into our community, enroll 

Herself along with those good Convertites,i 

Those sinners saved, those Magdalens re-made, 1 190 

Accept their ministration, well bestow 

Her body and patiently possess her soul. 

Until we see what better can be done. 

Last for the husband : if his tale prove true, 

Well is he rid of two domestic plagues — 1195 

Both wife that ailed, do whatsoever he would, 

And friend of hers that undertook the cure. 

See, what a double load we lift from breast! 

Off he may go, return, resume old life. 

Laugh at the priest here and Pompilia there I200 

In limbo each and punished for their pains. 

And grateful tell the inquiring neighborhood — 

In Rome, no wrong but has its remedy." 

The case was closed. Now, am I fair or no 

In what I utter? Do I state the facts. 1205 

Having forechosen a side? I promised you! 

The Canon Caponsacchi, then, was sent 

To change his garb, re-trim his tonsure, tie 

The clerkly silk round, every plait correct. 

Make the impressive entry on his place 12 10 

Of relegation, thrill his Civita, 

As Ovid,- a like sufferer in the cause. 

Planted a primrose-patch by Pontus : where, — 

What with much culture of the sonnet-stave 

And converse with the aborigines, 1215 

Soft savagery of eyes unused to roll 

And hearts that all awry went pit-a-pat 

And wanted setting right in charity. — 

What were a couple of years to while away? 

Pompilia, as enjoined, betook herself 1220 

To the aforesaid Convertites, soft sisterhood 

In Via Lungara, where the light ones live. 

Spin, pray, then sing like linnets o'er the flax. 

" Anywhere, anyhow, out of my husband's house 

Is heaven," cried she. — was therefore suited so. 1225 

But for Count Guido Franceschini, he — 

1 Convertites : an order of nuns devoted - Ovid, a like sufferer : he was banished 

to the rescue of others who, like themselves, by Augustus to Tomis, on the Euxine Sea, 
have fallen. for some amour or imprudence. 



62 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

The injured man thus righted — found no heaven 
r the house when he returned there, I engage. 
Was welcomed by the city turned upside down 
In a chorus of inquiry. ''What, back — you? 1230 

And no wife? Left her with the Penitents? 
Ah. being young and pretty, H were a shame 
To have her whipped in public : leave the job 
To the priests who understand ! Such priests as yours — 
(Pontifex Alaximus whipped Vestals once)^ 1235 

Our madcap Caponsacchi : think of him! 
So, he fired up, showed fight and skill of fence? 
Ay, you drew also, but you did not fight ! 
The wiser, 't is a word and a blow with him, 
True Caponsacchi, of old Head-i'-the-Sack - 1240 

That fought at Fiesole ere Florence was : 
He had done enough, to firk^ you were too much. 
And did the little lady menace you. 
Make at your breast with your own harmless sword? 
The spitfire! Well, thank God you're safe and sound, 1245 
Have kept the sixth commandment whether or no 
The lady broke the seventh : I only wish 
1 were as saint-like, could contain me so. 
I, the poor sinner, fear I should have left 

Sir Priest no nose-tip to turn up at me! " 1250 

You, Sir, who listen but interpose no word, 
Ask yourself, had you borne a baiting thus? 
Was it enough to make a wise man mad ? 
.^ Oh, but I '11 have your verdict at the end! 

' Well, not enough, it seems : such mere hurt falls, 1255 

Frets awhile, aches long, then grows less and less, 
And so gets done with. Such was not the scheme 
O' the pleasant Comparini : on Guido's wound 
Ever in due succession, drop by drop. 

Came slow distilment from the alembic here 1260 

Set on to simmer by Canidian hate,'* 
Corrosives keeping the man's misery raw. 
First fire-drop, — when he thought to make the best 
O' the bad, to wring from out the sentence passed. 
Poor, pitiful, absurd although it were, 1265 

Yet what might eke him out result enough 

1 Potitifix Maximus : in ancient Rome, ^ Firk : chastise 

any Vestal Virgin who let the sacred fire go * Canidian hair : Caiiidia was a Neapoli- 

out was scourged by the Pontifex Ma.ximus. tan beloved by Horace. When she deserted 

2 Caponsacchi : in English, Head i' the him, he held her up to contempt as an old 
Sack. The family is mentioned in Dante's witch. 

Paradise, XVI. 



HALF-ROME. 63 

And make it worth while to have had the right 

And not the wrong i' the matter judged at Rome. 

Inadequate her punishment, no less 

Punished in some slight sort his wife had been ; 1270 

Then, punished for adultery, what else? 

On such admitted crime he thought to seize, 

And institute procedure in the courts 

Which cut corruption of this kind from man, 

Cast loose a wife proved loose and castaway : 1275 

He claimed in due form a divorce at least. 

This claim was met now by a counterclaim : 

Pompilia sought divorce from bed and board 

Of Guido, whose outrageous cruelty. 

Whose mothers malice and whose brother's hate i2c>o 

Were just the white o' the charge, such dreadful depths 

Blackened its centre, — hints of worse than hate, 

Love from that brother, by that Guido's guile, 

That mother's prompting. Such reply was made, 

So was the engine loaded, wound up, sprung 1285 

On Guido, who received bolt full in breast ; 

But no less bore up, giddily perhaps. 

He had the Abate Paolo still in Rome, 

Brother and friend and fighter on his side : 

They rallied in a measure, met the foe 1290 

Manlike, joined battle in the public courts, 

As if to shame supine law from her sloth : 

And waiting her award, let beat the while 

Arezzo's banter, Rome's buffoonery, 

On this ear and on that ear, deaf alike, I -95 

Safe from worse outrage. Let a scorpion nip, 

And never mind till he contorts his tail! 

But there was sting i' the creature ; thus it struck. 

Guido had thought in his simplicity — 

That lying declaration of remorse, 1300 

That story of the child which was no child 

And motherhood no motherhood at all, 

— That even this sin might have its sort of good 

Inasmuch as no question more could be, — • 

Call it false, call the story true, — no claim 1305 

Of further parentage pretended now : 

The parents had abjured all right, at least, 

r the woman owned his wife : to plead right still 

Were to declare the abjuration false : 

He was relieved from any fear henceforth 1 310 

Their hands might touch, their breath defile again 

Pompilia with his name upon her yet. 

Well, no : the next news was, Pompilia's health 



64 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Demanded change after full three long weeks 

Spent in devotion with the Sisterhood, — 1315 

Which rendered sojourn, — so the court opined, — 

Too irksome, since the convent's walls were high 

And windows narrow, nor was air enough 

Nor light enough, but all looked prison-like. 

The last thing which had come into the court's head. 1320 

Propose a new expedient therefore, — this! 

She had demanded — had obtained indeed. 

By intervention of her pitying friends 

Or perhaps lovers — (beauty in distress, 

Beauty whose tale is the town-talk beside. 1325 

Never lacks friendship's arm about her neck) — 

Obtained remission of the penalty, 

Permitted transfer to some private place 

Where better air. more light, new food might soothe — 

Incarcerated (call it, all the same) 1330 

At some sure friend's house she must keep inside, 

Be found in at requirement fast enough, — 

Doiiius pro carcere,^ in Roman style. 

You keep the house i' the main, as most men do 

And all good women : but free otherwise, 1335 

Should friends arrive, to lodge them and what not? 

And such a do>/na/:, such a dwelling-place. 

Having all Rome to choose from, where chose she? 

What house obtained Pompilia's preference? 

Why, just the Comparini's — just, do you mark, 1340 

Theirs who renounced all part and lot in her 

So long as Guido could be robbed thereby. 

And only fell back on relationship 

And found their daughter safe and sound again 

When that might surelier stab him : jes, the pair 1345 

Who, as I told you, first had baited hook 

With this poor gilded fly Pompilia-thing, 

Then caught the fish, pulled Guido to the shore 

And gutted him, — now found a further use 

For the bait, would trail the gauze wings yet again 1350 

r the way of what new swimmer passed their stand. 

They took Pompilia to their hiding-place — 

Not in the heart of Rome as formerly. 

Under observance, subject to control — 

But out o' the way, — or in the way, who knows? 1355 

That blind mute villa lurking by the gate 

At Via Paulina, not so hard to miss 

By the honest eye, easy enough to find 

In twilight by marauders: where perchance 

' Damns pro carcere : a house for a prison. 



HALF-ROME. 65 

Some muffled Caponsacchi might repair, 1360 

Employ odd moments when he too tried change. 
Found that a friend's abode was pleasanter 
Than relegation, penance and the rest. 

Come, here's the last drop does its worst to wound 

Here 's Guido poisoned to the bone, you say 1365 

Your boasted still 's full strain and strength : not so! 

One master-squeeze from screw shall bring to birth 

The hoard i' the heart o' the toad,^ hell's quintessence. 

He learned the true convenience of the change, 

And why a convent lacks the cheerful hearts 1370 

And helpful hands which female straits require, 

When, in the blind mute villa by the gate, 

Pompilia — what? sang, danced, saw company? 

— Gave birth. Sir, to a child, his son and heir. 

Or Guido's heir and Caponsacchi's son. 1375 

I want your word now : what do you say to this? 

What would say little Arezzo and great Rome, 

And what did God say and the devil say 

One at each ear o' the man, the husband, now 

The father? Why, the overburdened mind 1380 

Broke down, what was a brain became a blaze. 

In fury of the moment — (that first news 

Fell on the Count among his vines, it seems, 

Doing his farm-work,) — why, he summoned steward. 

Called in the first four hard hands and stout hearts 1385 

From field and furrow, poured forth his appeal. 

Not to Rome's law and gospel any more, 

But this clown with a mother or a wife, 

That clodpole with a sister or a son : 

And, whereas law and gospel held their peace, 1390 

What wonder if the sticks and stones cried out ? 

All five soon somehow found themselves at Rome, 

At the villa door : there was the warmth and light ^ 

The sense of life so just an inch inside — 

Some angel must have whispered "one more chance !" 1395 

He gave it : bade the others stand aside : 

Knocked at the door, — "Who is it knocks?" cried one. 

" I will make," surely Guido's angel urged. 

" One final essay, last experiment. 

Speak the word, name the name from out all names 1400 

' Hoard i' the heart o' the toad : Fenton stelon, which, being used as rings, gives fore- 
says, " There is to be found in the heads of warning against venom. See "As You Like 
old and great toads a stone they call borax or It," II. i. 15. 
F 



66 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Which, if, — as doubtless strong illusions are, 

And strange disguisings whereby truth seems false, 

And, since I am but man, I dare not do 

God's work until assured I see with God, — 

If I should bring my lips to breathe that name 1405 

And they be innocent, — nay, by one mere touch 

Of innocence redeemed from utter guilt, — 

That name will bar the door and bid fate pass. 

I will not say ' It is a messenger, 

A neighbor, even a belated man, 1410 

Much less your husband's friend, your husband's self: ' 

At such appeal the door is bound to ope. 

But I will say " — here 's rhetoric and to spare ! 

Whv, Sir. the stumbling-block is cursed and kicked, 

Block though it be; the name that brought offence 141 5 

Will bring offence : the burnt child dreads the fire 

Although that fire feed on some taper-wick 

Which never left the altar nor singed a fly : 

And had a harmless man tripped you by chance, 

How would you wait him, stand or step aside. 1420 

When next you heard he rolled your way? Enough. 

" Giuseppe Caponsacchi ! " Guido cried ; 

And open flew the door: enough again. 

Vengeance, you know, burst, like a mountain-wave 

That holds a monster in it, over the house, 1425 

And wiped its filthy four walls free at last 

With a wash of hell-fire, — father, mother, wife. 

Killed them all, bathed his name clean in their blood, 

And, reeking so. was caught, his friends and he, 

Haled hither and imprisoned yesternight 1430 

O' the day all this was. 

Now, Sir, tale is told. 
Of how the old couple come to lie in state 
Though hacked to pieces, — never, the expert say. 
So thorough a study of stabbing — while the wife 
(Viper-like, very difficult to slay) 1435 

Writhes still through every ring of her, poor wretch. 
At the Hospital hard by — survives, we '11 hope. 
To somewhat purify her putrid soul 
By full confession, make so much amends 
While time lasts ; since at day's end die she must. 1440 

For Caponsacchi, — why, they '11 have him here. 

As hero of the adventure, who so fit 

To figure in the coming Carnival ? 

'T will make the fortune of whate'er saloon 



HALF-ROME. 67 

Hears him recount, with helpful cheek, and eye 1445 

Hotly indignant now, now dewy-dimmed. 

The incidents of flight, pursuit, surprise. 

Capture, with hints of kisses all between — 

While Guido, wholly unromantic spouse. 

No longer fit to laugh at since the blood 1450 

Gave the broad farce an all too brutal air. 

Why, he and those four luckless friends of his 

May tumble in the straw this bitter day — 

Laid by the heels i' the New Prison, I hear. 

To bide their trial, since trial, and for the life, 1455 

Follows if but for form's sake : yes, indeed I 

But with a certain issue : no dispute, 

" Try him," bids law : formalities oblige : 

But as to the issue, — look me in the face! — 

If the law thinks to find them guilty. Sir, 1460 

Master or men — touch one hair of the five, 

Then I say in the name of all that 's left 

Of honor in Rome, civility i' the world 

Whereof Rome boasts herself the central source, — 

There 's an end to all hope of justice more. 1465 

Astraeai 's gone indeed, let hope go too! 

Who is it dares impugn the natural law. 

Deny God's word "the faithless wife shall die "? 

What, are we blind.'' How can we fail to learn 

This crowd of miseries make the man a mark, 1470 

Accumulate on one devoted liead 

For our example? — yours and mine who read 

Its lesson thus — " Henceforward let none dare 

Stand, like a natural in the public way. 

Letting the very urchins twitch his beard 1475 

And tweak his nose, to earn a nickname so. 

Be styled male-Grissel - or else modern Job' " 

Had Guido, in the twinkling of an eye. 

Summed up the reckoning, promptly paid himself. 

That morning when he came up with the pair 1480 

At the wayside inn, — exacted his just debt 

By aid of what first mattock, pitchfork, axe 

Came to hand in the helpful stable-yard. 

And with that axe, if providence so pleased. 

Cloven each head, by some Rolando-stroke,^ 1485 

1 Astrcea : virgin-goddess of justice, Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford's tale, a type of 

daughter of Zeus and Themis, who departed female patience. 

from earth at the close of the golden age and ^ Rolando-stroke : Roland, the medijeval 

became the constellation Virgo. hero of romance. 

^Male-Grissel : Griselda, the heroine of 



68 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

In one clean cut from crown to clavicle,^ 

— Slain the priest-gallant, the wife-paramour, 

Sticking, for all defence, in each skull's cleft 

The rhyme and reason of the stroke thus dealt, 

To-wit, those letters and last evidence 1490 

Of shame, each package in its proper place. — 

Bidding, who pitied, undistend the skulls, — 

I say, the world had praised the man. But no! 

That were too plain, too straight, too simplv just! 

He hesitates, calls law forsooth to help. 1495 

And law, distasteful to who calls in law 

When honor is beforehand and would serve. 

What wonder if law hesitate in turn, 

Plead her disuse to calls o' the kind, reply 

(Smiling a little) "'T is yourself assess 1500 

The worth of what's lost, sum of damage done. 

What you touched with so'light a finger-tip. 

You whose concern it was to grasp the thing. 

Why must law gird herself and grapple with? 

Law, alien to the actor whose warm blood 1505 

Asks heat from law whose veins run lukewarm milk, — 

What you dealt lightly with, shall law make out 

Heinous forsooth ? " 

Sir, what "s the good of law 
In a case o' the kind? None, as she all but says. 
Call in law when a neighbor breaks your fence, 15 10 

Cribs from your field, tampers with rent or lease. 
Touches the purse or pocket, — but wooes your wife? 
No : take the old way trod when men were men! 
Guido preferred the new path, — for his pains, 
Stuck in a quagmire, floundered worse and worse 15 15 

Until he managed somehow scramble back 
Into the safe sure rutted road once more. 
Revenged his own wrong like a gentleman. 
Once back 'mid the familiar prints, no doubt 
He made too rash amends for his first fault, 1520 

Vaulted too loftily over what barred him late, 
And lit i' the mire again, — the common chance. 
The natural over-energy : the deed 
JVIaladroit yields three deaths instead of one. 
And one life left : for where 's the Canon's corpse? 1525 

All which is the worse for Guido, but, be frank — • 
The better for you and me and all the world. 
Husbands of wives, especially in Rome. 
The thing is put right, in the old place, — ay, 
The rod hangs on its nail behind the door, 1530 

1 Clavicle : collar-bone. 



HALF-ROME. 69 

Fresh from the brine : a matter I commend 

To the notice, during Carnival that 's near, 

Of a certain what 's-his-name and jackanapes 

Somewhat too civil of eves with lute and song 

About a house here, where I keep a wife. ^535 

(You, being his cousin, may go tell him so.) 



70 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

III. 

THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 

[That side of public opinion which is predisposed to take the weaker part and 
to look beneath the more obvious motives for the deeper-seated causes of any occur- 
rence is given expression in Book III. The " Other Half-Rome," therefore, be- 
friends the suffering wife and her untitled foster-parents, detects the inconsistencies 
of Guido's defence, and, in the interest of society at large, refuses to permit a hus- 
band to constitute himself judge and executioner in his own case.] 

Another day that finds her living yet. 

Little Pompilia, with the patient brow 

And lamentable smile on those poor lips, 

And, under the white hospital-array, 

A flower-like body, to frighten at a bruise 5 

You 'd think, yet now, stabbed through and through again, 

Alive i' the ruins. 'T is a miracle. 

It seems that, when her husband struck her first. 

She prayed Madonna just that she might live 

So long as to confess and be absolved ; 10 

And whether it was that, all her sad life long 

Never before successful in a prayer. 

This prayer rose with authority too dread, — 

Or whether, because earth was hell to her. 

By compensation, when the blackness broke 15 

She got one glimpse of quiet and the cool blue, 

To show her for a moment such things were, — 

Or else, — as the Augustinian Brother thinks. 

The friar who took confession from her lip, — 

When a probationary soul that moved 20 

From nobleness to nobleness, as she. 

Over the rough way of the world, succumbs. 

Bloodies its last thorn with unflinching foot. 

The angels love to do their work betimes, 

Staunch some wounds here nor leave so much for God. 25 

Who knows? However it be, confessed, absolved, 

She lies, with overplus of life beside 

To speak and right herself from first to last. 

Right the friend also, lamb-pure, lion-brave. 

Care for the boy's concerns, to save the son 30 

From the sire, her two-weeks' infant orphaned thus, 

And — with best smile of all reserved for him — 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 71 

Pardon that sire and husband from the heart. 
A miracle, so tell your Molinists! 

There she lies in the long white lazar-house. 35 

Rome has besieged, these two da3's, never doubt, 

Saint Anna's ^ where she waits her death, to hear 

Though but the chink o' the bell, turn o' the hinge 

When the reluctant wicket opes at last, 

Lets in, on now this and now that pretence, 40 

Too many by half, — complain the men of art, — 

For a patient in such plight. The lawyers tirst 

Paid the due visit — justice must be done ; 

They took her witness, why the murder was. 

Then the priests followed properly, — a soul 45 

To shrive ; 't was Brother Celestine's own right, 

The same who noises thus her gifts abroad. 

But many more, who found they were old friends, 

Pushed in to have their stare and take their talk 

And go forth boasting of it and to boast. 50 

Old Monna Baldi chatters like a jay. 

Swears — but that, prematurely trundled out 

Just as she felt the benefit begin, 

The miracle was snapped up by somebody, — 

Her palsied limb 'gan prick and promise life 55 

At touch o' the bedclothes merely, — how much more 

Had she but brushed the body as she tried! 

Cavalier Carlo- — well, there's some excuse 

For him — Maratta who paints Virgins so — 

He too must fee the porter and slip by 60 

With pencil cut and paper squared, and straight 

There was he figuring away at face : 

" A lovelier face is not in Rome," cried he, 

" Shaped like a peacock's egg, the pure as pearl, 

That hatches you anon a snow-white chick." 65 

Then, oh that pair of eyes, that pendent hair. 

Black this and black the other! Mighty fine — 

But nobody cared ask to paint the same. 

Nor grew a poet over hair and eyes 

Four little years ago when, ask and have, 7° 

The woman who wakes all this rapture leaned 

Flower-like from out her window long enough, 

As much uncomplimented as uncropped 

By comers and goers in Via Vittoria : eh ? 

'T is just a flower's fate : past parterre we trip, 75 

^ Sai'nf Anna's : the monastery in Rome painter (1625-1713) called "Carlo delle 
where Vittoria Colonna also awaited death. Madonne," on account of the great number 
- Carlo Maratta : celebrated Roman of pictures of the Virgin he painted. 



72 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Till peradventure someone plucks our sleeve — 

"Yon blossom at the briar's end, that's the rose 

Two jealous people fought for yesterday 

And killed each other : see, there 's undisturbed 

A pretty pool at the root, of rival red! " 80 

Then cry we '' Ah, the perfect paragon! " 

Then crave we "Just one keepsake-leaf for us!" 

Truth lies between : there 's anyhow a child 

Of seventeen years, whether a flower or weed, 

Ruined : who did it shall account to Christ — 85 

Having no pity on the harmless life 

And gentle face and girlish form he found, 

And thus flings back. Go practise if you please 

With men and women : leave a child alone 

For Christ's particular love's sake! — so I say. 90 

Somebody, at the bedside, said much more. 

Took on him to explain the secret cause 

O' the crime : quoth he, " Such crimes are very rife, 

Explode nor make us wonder now-a-days, 

Seeing that Antichrist disseminates 95 

That doctrine of the Philosophic Sin : ^ 

Molinos' sect will soon make earth too hot!" 

"Nay," groaned the Augustinian, "what's there new? 

Crime will not fail to flare up from men's hearts 

While hearts are men's and so born criminal ; loo 

Which one fact, always old yet ever new, 

Accounts for so much crime that, for my part, 

Molinos may go whistle to the wind 

That waits outside a certain church, you know!" 

Though really it does seem as if she here, 105 

Pompilia, living so and dying thus, 

Has had undue experience how much crime 

A heart can hatch. Why was she made to learn 

— Not you, not I, not even Molinos' self — 

What Guido Franceschini's heart could hold? no 

Thus saintship is eftected probably ; 

No sparing saints the process! — which the more 

Tends to the reconciling us, no saints, 

To sinnership, immunity and all. 

For see now : Pietro and Violante's life 115 

Till seventeen years ago, all Rome might note 

"^Philosophic Sin: Molinos taught that " desires nothing, not even his own salvation; 
a soul in a state of perfect contemplation and fears nothing, not even hell itself." 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 73 

And quote for happy — see the signs distinct 
Of happiness as we yon Triton's ^ trump. 
What could they be but happy? — balanced so, 
Nor low i' the social scale nor yet too high, 120 

\f^^i' Nor poor nor richer than comports with ease, 

"^- Nor bright and envied, nor obscure and scorned, 
I Nor so young that their pleasures fell too thick, 
/ Nor old past catching pleasure when it fell. 
Nothing above, below the just degree, 125 

All at the mean where joy's components mix. 
So again, in the couple's very souls 
You saw the adequate half with half to match. 
Each having and each lacking somewhat, both 
Making a whole that had all and lacked nought. 130 

The round and sound, in whose composure just 
The acquiescent and recipient side. 
Was Pietro's, and the stirring striving one 
Violante's : both in union gave the due 

Quietude, enterprise, craving and content, 135 

Which go to bodily health and peace of mind. 
But, as 't is said a body, rightly mixed. 
Each element in equipoise, would last 
Too long and live for ever, — accordingly 

Holds a germ — sand-grain weight too much i' the scale — 140 
Ordained to get predominance one day 
And so bring all to ruin and release, — 
Not otherwise a fatal germ lurked here : 
"With mortals much must go, but something stays; 
Nothing will stay of our so happy selves." 145 

Out of the very ripeness of life's core 
A worm was bred — '* Our life shall leave no fruit." 
Enough of bliss, they thought, could bliss bear seed. 
Yield its like, propagate a bliss in turn 

And keep the kind up ; not supplant themselves 150 

But put in evidence, record they were. 
Show them, when done with, i' the shape of a child. 
" 'T is in a "child, man and wife grow complete. 
One flesh : God says so : let him do his work ! " 

Now, one reminder of this gnawing want, 155 

One special prick o' the maggot at the core. 
Always befell when, as the day came round, 
A certain yearly sum, — our Pietro being. 
As the long name runs, an usufructuary,- — 

' Yo>i Triton: see note, I. 890. The speaker - Usufructuary : a person who has the 

is represented as being in the Piazza Barberini, use of the profits of a property. 
near Bernini's fountain, composed of a Triton 
supported by dolphins. 



74 THE RIXG AND THE BOOK. 

Dropped in the common bag as interest l6o 

Of money, his till death, not afterward. 

Failing an heir : an heir would take and take, 

A child of theirs be wealthy in their place 

To nobody's hurt — the stranger else seized all. 

Prosperity rolled river-like and stopped, 165 

Making their mill go ; but when wheel wore out, 

The wave would find a space and sweep on free 

And, half-a-mile off. grind some neighbor's corn. 

Adam-like, Pietro sighed and said no more : 

Eve saw the apple was fair and good to taste, 170 

So, plucked it, having asked the snake advice. 

She told her husband God was merciful. 

And his and her prayer granted at the last : 

Let the old mill-stone moulder, — wheel unworn. 

Quartz from the quarry, shot into the stream 175 

Adroitly, as before should go bring grist — 

Their house continued to them by an heir. 

Their vacant heart replenished with a child. 

We have her own confession at full length 

Made in the first remorse : \ was Jubilee 180 

Pealed in the ear o' the conscience and it woke. 

She found she had offended God no doubt. 

So much was plain from what had happened since. 

Misfortune on misfortune; but she harmed 

No one i' the world, so far as she could see. 185 

The act had gladdened Pietro to the height. 

Her spouse whom God himself must gladden so 

Or not at all : thus much seems probable 

From the implicit faith, or rather say 

Stupid credulity of the foolish man 190 

Who swallowed such a tale nor strained a whit 

Even at his wife's far-over-fifty years 

Matching his sixty-and-under. Him she blessed; 

And as for doing any detriment 

To the veritable heir, — why, tell her first 195 

Who was he? Which of all the hands held up 

r the crowd, one day would gather round their gate, 

Did she so wrong by intercepting thus 

The ducat, spendthrift fortune thought to fling 

For a scramble just to make the mob break shins ? 200 

She kept it, saved them kicks and cuffs thereby. 

While at the least one good work had she wrought, 

Good, clearly and incontestably! Her cheat — 

What was it to its subject, the child's self. 

But charity and religion ? See the girl ! 205 

A body most like — a soul too probably — 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 75 

Doomed to death, such a double death as waits 

The ilHcit oftspring of a common trull, 

Sure to resent and forthwith rid herself 

Of a mere interruption to sin's trade, 210 

In the etificacious way old Tiber knows. 

Was not so mucli proved by the ready sale 

O' the child, glad transfer of tliis irksome chance ? 

Well then, she had caught up this castaway : 

This fragile ^g%, some careless wild bird dropped, 215 

She had picked from where it waited the foot-fall, 

And put in her own breast till forth broke finch 

Able to sing God praise on mornings now. 

What so excessive harm was done ? — she asked. 

To which demand the dreadful answer comes — 220 

For that same deed, now at Lorenzo's church, 

Both agents, conscious and inconscious, lie ; 

While she, the deed was done to benefit. 

Lies also, the most lamentable of things. 

Yonder where curious people count her breaths, 225 

Calculate how long yet the little life 

Unspilt may serve their turn nor spoil the show. 

Give them their story, then the church its group. 

Well, having gained Pompilia, the girl grew 

r the midst of Pietro here. Violante there, 230 

Each, like a semicircle with outstretched arms, , 

Joining the other round her preciousness — 

Two walls that go about a garden-plot 

Where a chance sliver, branchlet slipt from bole 

Of some tongue-leaved eye-figured Eden tree,^ 235 

Filched by two exiles and borne far away. 

Patiently glorifies their solitude, — 

Year by year mounting, grade by grade surmount 

The builded brick-work, yet is compassed still. 

Still hidden happily and shielded safe. — . 240 

Else why should miracle have graced the ground ? 

But on the twelfth sun that brought April there 

What meant that laugh? The coping-stone was reached ; 

Nay, above towered a light tuft of bloom 

To be toyed with by butterfly or bee, 245 

Done good to or else harm to from outside : 

Pompilia's root, stalk and a branch or two 

Home enclosed still, the rest would be the world's. 

All which was taught our couple though obtuse, 

' Tongue-leaved eye-figured Eden tree : possibly a reference to some symbolic repre- 
sentation of the tree of Eden. 



76 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Since walls have ears, when one day brought a priest, 250 

Smooth-mannered soft-speeched sleek-cheeked visitor, 

The notable Abate Paolo — known 

As younger brother of a Tuscan house 

Whereof the actual representative, 

Count Guido, had employed his youth and age 255 

In culture of Rome's most productive plant — 

A cardinal : but years pass and change comes, 

In token of which, here was our Paolo brought 

To broach a weighty business. Might he speak? 

Yes — to Violante somehow caught alone 260 

While Pietro took his after-dinner doze. 

And the young maiden, busily as befits. 

Minded her broider-frame three chambers off. 

So — giving now his great flap-hat a gloss 

With flat o' the hand between-whiles, soothing now 265 

The silk from out its creases o'er the calf. 

Setting the stocking clerical again. 

But never disengaging, once engaged. 

The thin clear grey hold of his eyes on her — 

He dissertated on that Tuscan house, 270 

Those Franceschini, — very old they were — 

Not rich however — oh, not rich, at least. 

As people look to be who. low i' the scale 

One way, have reason, rising all they can 

By favor of the money-bag! 't is fair — 275 

Do all gifts go together? But don't suppose 

That being not so rich means all so poor! 

Say rather, well enough — i' the way, indeed, 

Ha, ha. to fortune better than the best : 

Since if his brother's patron-friend kept faith, 280 

Put into promised play the Cardinalate, 

Their house might wear the red cloth that keeps warm. 

Would but the Count have patience — there 's the point! 

For he was slipping into years apace. 

And years make men restless — they needs must spy 285 

Some certainty, some sort of end assured. 

Some sparkle, tho' from topmost beacon-tip. 

That warrants life a harbor through the haze. 

In short, call him fantastic as you choose, 

Guido was home-sick, yearned for the old sights 290 

And usual faces, — fain would settle himself 

And have the patron's bounty when it fell 

Irrigate far rather than deluge near. 

Go fertilize Arezzo, not flood Rome. 

Sooth to say, 't was the wiser wish : the Count 295 

Proved wanting in ambition, — let us avouch, 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 77 

Since truth is best, — in callousness of heart, 
And winced at pin-pricks whereby honors hang 
A ribbon o'er each puncture : liis — no soul 
Ecclesiastic (here the hat was brushed) 300 

Humble but self-sustaining, calm and cold. 
Having, as one who puts his hand to the plough, 
Renounced the over-vivid family-feel — 
Poor brother Guido ! All too plain, he pined 
Amid Rome's pomp and glare for dinginess 305 

And that dilapidated palace-shell 
Vast as a quarry and, very like, as bare — 
Since to this comes old grandeur now-a-days — 
• Or that absurd wild villa in the waste 

O' the hill side, breezy though, for who likes air, 310 

Vittiano, nor unpleasant with its vines. 

Outside the city and the summer heats. 

And now his harping on this one tense chord 

The villa and the palace, palace this 

And villa the other, all day and all night 315 

Creaked like the implacable cicala's cry 

And made one's ear drum ache : nought else would serve 

But that, to light his mother's visage up 

With second youth, hope, gaiety again. 

He must find straightway, woo and haply win 320 

And bear away triumphant back, some wife. 

Well now, the man was rational in his way : 

He, the Abate, — ought he to interpose.'' 

Unless by straining still his tutelage 

(Priesthood leaps over elder-brothership) 325 

Across this difficulty : then let go. 

Leave the poor fellow in peace! Would that be wrong? 

There was no making Guido great, it seems. 

Spite of himself: then happy be his dole! 

Indeed, the Abate's little interest 330 

Was somewhat nearly touched i' the case, they saw : 

Since if his simple kinsman so were bent. 

Began his rounds in Rome to catch a wife. 

Full soon would such unworldliness surprise 

The rare bird, sprinkle salt on phoenix' tail, 335 

And so secure the nest a sparrow-hawk. 

No lack of mothers here in Rome, — no dread 

Of daughters lured as larks by looking-glass ! ^ 

The first name-pecking credit-scratching fowl 

Would drop her unfledged cuckoo in our nest 340 

^ Lured as larks by looking-glass : refers posed to the sun, by their brightness attract 
to a kind of trap mounted on a pivot and set larks and other birds, 
with little pieces of looking-glass which, ex- 



78 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

To gather greyness there, give voice at length 

And shame the brood . . . but it was long ago 

When crusades were, and we sent eagles forth ! 

No, that at least the Abate could forestall. 

He read the thought within his brother's word, 345 

Knew what he purposed better than himself. 

We want no name and fame — having our own : 

No worldly aggrandizement — such we fly: 

But if some wonder of a woman's-heart 

Were yet untainted on this grimy earth. 350 

Tender and true — tradition tells of such — 

Prepared to pant in time and tune with ours — 

If some good girl (a girl since she must take 

The new bent, live new life, adopt new modes) 

Not wealthy (Guido for his rank was poor) 355 

But with whatever dowry came to hand, — 

There were the lady-love predestinate! 

And somehow the Abate's guardian eye — 

Scintillant, rutilant,i fraternal fire. — 

Roving round every way had seized the prize 360 

— The instinct of us, we, the spiritualty ! 

Come, cards on table ; was it true or false 

That here — here in this very tenement — 

Yea, Via Vittoria did a marvel hide, 

Lily of a maiden, white with intact leaf 365 

Guessed thro' the sheath that saved it from the sun? 

A daughter with the mother's hands still clasped 

Over her head for fillet virginal, 

A wife woi'th Guido's house and hand and heart? 

He came to see; had spoken, he could no less — 370 

(A final cherish of the stockinged calf) 

If harm were, — well, the matter was off his mind. 

Then with the great air did he kiss, devout. 

Violante's hand, and rise up his whole height 

(A certain purple gleam about the black) 375 

And go forth grandlv, — as if the Pope came next. 

And so Violante rubbed her eyes awhile. 

Got up too, walked to wake her Pietro soon 

And pour into his ear the mighty news 

How somebody had somehow somewhere seen 380 

Their tree-top-tuft of bloom upon the wall, 

And came now to apprize them the tree's self 

Was no such crab-sort as should go feed swine. 

But veritable gold, the Hesperian ball '^ 

1 Rutilant : shining. which Hercules was required to fetch from 

2 The Hesperian ball : the golden apple the garden of the Hesperides. 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 79 

Ordained for Hercules to haste and pluck, 385 

And bear and give the Gods to banquet with — 

Hercules standing ready at the door. 

Whereon did Pietro rub his eyes in turn, 

Look very wise, a little woeful too, 

Then, periwig on head, and cane in hand, 390 

Sally forth dignifiedly into the Square 

Of Spain 1 across Babbuino the six steps. 

Toward the Boat-fountain where our idlers lounge, — 

Ask, for form's sake, who Hercules might be. 

And have congratulation from the world. 395 

Heartily laughed the world in his fooFs-face 

And told him Hercules was just the heir 

To the stubble once a corn-held, and brick-heap 

Where used to be a dwelling-place now burned. 

Guido and Franceschini ; a Count, — ay : 400 

But a cross- i' the poke^ to bless the Countship? No! 

All gone except sloth, pride, rapacity. 

Humors of the imposthume * incident 

To rich blood that runs thin, — nursed to a head 

By the rankly-salted soil — a cardinal's court 405 

Where, parasite and picker-up of crumbs. 

He had hung on long, and now, let go, said some, 

Shaken off, said others, — but in any case 

Tired of the trade and something worse for wear, 

Was wanting to change town for country quick, 410 

Go home again : let Pietro help him home! 

The brother. Abate Paolo, shrewder mouse, 

Had pricked for comfortable quarters, inched 

Into the core of Rome, and fattened so ; 

But Guido, over-burly for rat's hole 415 

Suited to clerical slimness, starved outside. 

Must shift for himself: and so the shift was this! 

What, was the snug retreat of Pietro tracked, 

The little provision for his old age snuffed ? 

'• Oh, make your girl a lady, an you list, 420 

But have more mercy on our wit than vaunt 

Your bargain as we burgesses who brag! 

Why, Goodman Dullard, if a friend must speak, 

Would the Count, think you, stoop to you and yours 

Were there the value of one penny-piece 425 

^ The Sqjtare of Spain : the Piazza di found in Goldsmith, Dryden, Shakespeare, 

Spagna, in the present " English quarter " of and others. It originated from money with a 

Rome. The Via del Babbuino runs into it, cross stamped on it. 
and the" Boat-fountain" (Fontana della Bar- ^ P(,f;^ _■ a pocket, 

caccia) stands in it. * fmf'osihuine : abscess. 

^ Cross : i.e. a coin; an old expression, 



8o THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

To rattle 'twixt his palms — or likelier laugh, 
Bid your Pompilia help you black his shoe ? " 

Home again, shaking oft the puzzled pate, 

Went Pietro to announce a change indeed. 

Yet point Violante where some solace lay 430 

Of a rueful sort, — the taper, quenched so soon, 

Had ended merely in a snuflf, not stink — 

Congratulate there was one hope the less 

Not misery the more : and so an end. 

The marriage thus impossible, the rest 435 

Followed : our spokesman, Paolo, heard his fate, 

Resignedly Count Guido bore the blow : 

Violante wiped away the transient tear. 

Renounced the playing Danae ^ to gold dreams, 

Praised much her Pietro's prompt sagaciousness, 440 

Found neighbors' envy natural, lightly laughed 

At gossips' malice, fairly wrapped herself 

In her integrity three folds about. 

And, letting pass a little day or two. 

Threw, even over that integrity, 445 

Another wrappage, namely one thick veil 

That hid her, matron-wise, from head to foot. 

And, by the hand holding a girl veiled too, 

Stood, one dim end of a December day, 

In Saint Lorenzo on the altar-step — 450 

Just where she lies now and that girl will lie — 

Only with fifty candles' company 

Now, in the place of the poor winking one 

Which saw, — doors shut and sacristan made sure, — 

A priest — perhaps Abate Paolo — wed 455 

Guido clandestinely, irrevocably 

To his Pompilia aged thirteen years 

And five months, — witness the church register, — 

Pompilia, (thus become Count Guido's wife 

Clandestinely, irrevocably his.) 460 

Who all the while had borne, from first to last. 

As brisk a part i' the bargain, as ycHi lamb, 

Brought forth from basket and set out for sale. 

Bears while they chaffer, wary market-man 

And voluble housewife, o'er it, — each in turn 465 

Patting the curly calm inconscious head. 

With the shambles ready round the corner there, 

When the talk 's talked out and a bargain struck. 

' Danae : shut up in an underground chamber, she was visited by Jupiter disguised 
as a shower of gold. 



THE OTHER HALE-ROME. 8i 

Transfer complete, why, Pietro was apprised. 

Violante sobbed the sobs and prayed the prayers 470 

And said the serpent tempted so she fell, 
Till Pietro had to clear his brow apace 
And make the best of matters : wrath at first, — 
How else? pacification presently,- 

Why not ? — could flesh withstand the impurpled one, 475 

The very Cardinal, Paolo's patron-friend ? 
Who, justifiably surnamed "a hinge." ^ 
Knew where the mollifying oil should drop 
To cure the creak o' the valve, — considerate 

For frailty, patient in a naughty world. 480 

He even volunteered to supervise 
■ The rough draught of those marriage-articles 
Signed in a hurry by Pietro, since revoked : 
Trust 's politic, suspicion does the harm. 

There is but one way to brow-beat this world, 485 

Dumb-founder doubt, and repay scorn in kind, — 
To go on trusting, namely, till faith move 
Mountains. 

And faith here made the mountains move. 
Why, friends whose zeal cried "Caution ere too late! " — 
Bade " Pause ere jump, with both feet joined, on slough! " — 490 
Counselled " If rashness then, now temperance!" — 
Heard for their pains that Pietro had closed eyes, 
Jumped and was in the middle of the mire, 
IVIoney and all, just what should sink a man. 

By the mere marriage, Guido gained forthwith 495 

Dowry, his wife's right ; no rescinding there : 
But Pietro, why must he needs ratify 
One gift Violante gave, pay down one doit ^ 
Promised in first foors-flurry? Grasp the bag 
Lest the son's service flag, — is reason and rhyme, 500 

Above all when the son 's a son-in-law. 
Words to the wind ! The parents cast their lot 
Into the lap o' the daughter : and the son 
Now with a right to lie there, took what fell, 

Pietro's whole having and holding, house and field, 505 

Goods, chattels and effects, his worldlv worth 
Present and in perspective, all renounced 
In favor of Guido. As for the usufruct — 
The interest now, the principal anon. 

Would Guido please to wait, at Pietro's death : 510 

Till when, he must support the couple's charge, 

1 A hinge : the title Cardinal is derived ^ Doit : see note, II. 484. 

from cardo, " a hinge." 
G 



82 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Bear with them, liousemates, pensionaries, pawned 

To an alien for fulfihnent of their pact. 

Guide should at discretion deal them orts,i 

Bread-bounty in Arezzo the strange place, — 515 

They who had lived deliciously and rolled 

Rome's choicest comfit 'neath the tongue before. 

Into this quag,- "jump" bade the Cardinal I 

And neck-deep in a minute there flounced they. 

But they touched bottom at Arezzo : there — 520 

Four months' experience of how craft and greed 

Quickened by penury and pretentious hate 

Of plain tmth, brutify and bestialize, — 

Four months' taste of apportioned insolence, 

Cruelty graduated, dose by dose 525 

Of ruffianism dealt out at bed and board. 

And lo, the work was done, success clapped hands. 

The starved, stripped, beaten brace of stupid dupes 

Broke at last in their desperation loose, 

Fled away for their lives, and lucky so ; 530 

Found their account in casting coat afar 

And bearing off a shred of skin at least : 

Left Guido lord o' the prey, as the lion is. 

And. careless what came after, carried their wrongs 

To Rome, — I nothing doubt, with such remorse 535 

As folly feels, since pain can make it wise. 

But crime, past wisdom, which is innocence, 

Needs not be plagued with till a later day. 

Pietro went back to beg from door to door. 

In hope that memory not quite extinct 540 

Of cheery days and festive nights would move 

Friends and acquaintance — after the natural laugh, 

And tributary " Just as we foretold — " 

To show some bowels, give the dregs o' the cup, 

Scraps of the trencher, to their host that was, 545 

Or let him share the mat with the mastiff, he 

Who lived large and kept open house so long. 

Not so Violante : ever a-head i' the march. 

Quick at the bye-road and the cut-across. 

She went first to the best adviser, God — 550 

Whose finger unmistakably was felt 

In all this retribution of the past. 

Here was the prize of sin, luck of a lie! 

But here too was what Holy Year would help, 

Bound to rid sinners of sin vulgar, sin 555 

' Orts : scraps. ^ Quag = quagmire. 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 83 

Abnormal, sin prodigious, up to sin 

Impossible and supposed for Jubilee' sake: 

To lift the leadenest of lies, let soar 

The soul unhampered by a feather-weight. 

" I will " said she "go burn out this bad hole 560 

That breeds the scorpion, baulk the plague at least 

Of hope to further plague by progeny : 

I will confess my fault, be punished, yes, 

But pardoned too : Saint Peter pays for all." 

So. with the crowd she mixed, made for the dome, 565 

Through the great door^ new-broken for the nonce 

Marched, muffled more than ever matron-wise. 

Up the left nave to the formidable throne. 

Fell into file with this the poisoner 

And that the parricide, and reached in turn 570 

The poor repugnant Penitentiary '^ 

Set at this gully-hole o' the world's discharge 

To help the frightfullest of filth have vent. 

And then knelt down and whispered in his ear 

How she had bought Pompilia, palmed the babe 575 

On Pietro, passed the girl oiT as their child 

To Guido, and defrauded of his due 

This one and that one, — more than she could name. 

Until her solid piece of wickedness 

Happened to split and spread woe far and wide : 580 

Contritely now she brought the case for cure. 

Replied the throne — "Ere God forgive the guilt, 

Make man some restitution! Do your part! 

The owners of your husband's heritage, 

Barred thence by this pretended birth and heir, — 585 

Tell them, the bar came so, is broken so. 

Theirs be the due reversion as before! 

Your husband who, no partner in the guilt, 

Suifers the penalty, led blindfold thus 

By love of what he thought his flesh and blood 590 

To alienate his all in her behalf, — 

Tell him too such contract is null and void! 

Last, he who personates your son-in-law. 

Who with sealed eyes and stopped ears, tame and mute, 

"^ Great door: according to the special ness." The doors are then opened and sprin- 

ritual, the Pope, at the commencement of kled with holy water, and the Pope passes 

the Jubilee year, goes in solemn procession through. When the Jubilee closes, the door- 

to a particular walled-up door (the Porta way is again built up. 

Aurea, or golden door of St. Peter's) and ''■Penitentiary : an officer in some cathe- 

knocks three times, using the words of Psalm drals vested with power to absolve. 
cxviii. 19. " Open to me the gates of righteous- 



84 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Took at your hand that bastard of a whore 595 

You called your daughter and he calls his wife, — 
Tell him, and bear the anger which is just! 
Then, penance so performed, may pardon be!" 

Who could gainsay this just and right award ? 

Nobody in the world : but, out o' the world, 600 

Who knows? — might timid intervention be 

From any makeshift of an angel-guide, 

Substitute for celestial guardianship, 

Pretending to take care of the girPs self: 

"Woman, confessing crime is healthy work, 605 

And telling truth relieves a liar like you, 

But how of my quite unconsidered charge? 

No thought if, while this good befalls yourself, 

Aught in the way of harm may find out her? " 

No least thought, I assure you : truth being truth, 610 

Tell it and shame the devil! 

Said and done : 
Home went Violante, disbosomed all : 
And Pietro who, six months before, had borne 
Word after word of such a piece of news / 

.^^ Like so much cold steel inched through his breast-blade, /6i5^ 
Now at its entry gave a leap for joy, 
As who — what did I say of one in a quag ? — 
Should catch a hand from heaven and spring thereby 
Out of the mud, on ten toes stand once more. 
"What ? All that used to be, may be again? 620 

My money mine again, my house, my land, 
JVIy chairs and tables, all mine evermore? 
What, the girPs dowry never was the girPs, 
And, unpaid yet, is never now to pay? 

Then the girPs self, my pale Pompilia child 625 

That used to be my own with her great eyes — 
He who drove us forth, why should he keep her 
Wlien proved as very a pauper as himself ? 
Will she come back, with nothing changed at all, 
And laugh ' But how you dreamed uneasily! 630 

I saw the great drops stand here on your brow — 
Did I do wrong to wake you with a kiss?' 
No, indeed, darling! No, for wide awake 
I see another outburst of surprise : 

The lout-lord, bully-beggar, braggart-sneak, 635 

Who not content with cutting purse, crops ear — 
Assuredly it shall be salve to mine 
When this great news red-letters him, the rogue! 
Ay, let him taste the teeth o' the trap, this fox. 
Give us our lamb back, golden fleece and all, 640 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 85 

Let her creep in and warm our breasts again ! 

Why care for the past? We three are our old selves, 

And know now what the outside world is worth." 

And so, he carried case before the courts ; 

And there Violante, blushing to the bone, 645 

Made public declaration of her fault. 

Renounced her motherhood, and prayed the law 

To interpose, frustrate of its effect 

Her folly, and redress the injury done. 

Whereof was the disastrous consequence, 650 

That though indisputably clear the case 

(For thirteen years are not so large a lapse, 

And still six witnesses survived in Rome 

To prove the truth o' the tale) — yet, patent wrong 

Seemed Guido's ; the first cheat had chanced on him : 655 

Here was the pity that, deciding right, 

Those who began the wrong would gain the prize. 

Guido pronounced the story one long lie 

Lied to do robbery and take revenge : 

Or say it were no lie at all but truth, 660 

Then, it both robbed the right heirs and shamed him 

Without revenge to humanize the deed : 

What had he done when first they shamed him thus? 

But that were too fantastic : losels they, 

And leasing this world's-wonder of a lie, 665 

They lied to blot him though it brand themselves. 

So answered Guido through the Abate's mouth. 

Wlierefore the court, its customary way, 

Inclined to the middle course the sage affect. 

They held the child to be a changeling, — good : 670 

But, lest the husband got no good thereby. 

They willed the dowry, though not hers at all, 

Should yet be his. if not by right then grace — 

Part-pavment for the plain injustice done. 

As for that other contract. Pietro\s work, 675 

Renunciation of his own estate. 

That must be cancelled — give him back his gifts, 

He was no party to the cheat at least! 

So ran the judgment : — whence a prompt appeal 

On both sides, seeing right is absolute. 6S0 

Cried Pietro " Is the child no child of mine ? 

Why give her a child's dowry?" — " Have I right 

To the dowry, why not to the rest as well?" 

Cried Guido, or cried Paolo in his name : 

Till law said " Reinvestigate the case! " 685 

And so the matter pends, to this same day. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Hence new disaster — here no outlet seemed; 

Whatever the fortune of the battle-field. 

No path whereby the fatal man might march 

Victorious, wreath on head and spoils in hand, 690 

And back turned full upon the baffled foe. — 

Nor cranny whence, desperate and disgraced. 

Stripped to the skin, he might be fain to crawl 

Worm-like, and so away with his defeat 

To other fortune and a novel prey. 695 

No. he was pinned to the place there, left alone 

With his immense hate and, the solitary 

Subject to satisfy that hate, his wife. 

" Cast her off ? Turn her naked out of doors ? 

Easily said! But still the action pends, 700 

Still dowry, principal and interest, 

Pietro's possessions, all I bargained for, — 

Any good day, be but my friends alert, 

May give them me if she continue mine. 

Yet, keep her? Keep the puppet of my foes — 705 

Her voice that lisps me back their curse — her eye 

They lend their leer of triumph to — her lip 

I touch and taste their very filth upon ? " 

In short, he also took the middle course 

Rome taught him — did at last excogitate 710 

How he might keep the good and leave the bad 

Twined in revenge, yet extricable, — nay 

Make the very hate's eruption, very rush 

Of the unpent sluice of cruelty relieve 

His heart first, then go fertilize his field. 715 

What if the girl-wife, tortured with due care. 

Should take, as though spontaneously, the road 

It were impolitic to thrust her on? 

If, goaded, she broke out in full revolt. 

Followed her parents i' the face o' the world. ' 720 

Branded as runaway not castaway. 

Self-sentenced and self-punished in the act ? 

So should the loathed form and detested face 

Launch themselves into hell and there be lost 

While he looked o'er the brink with folded arms ; 725 

So should the heaped-up shames go shuddering back 

O' the head o' the heapers, Pietro and his wife. 

And bury in the breakage three at once : 

While Guido, left free, no one right renounced. 

Gain present, gain prospective, all the gain, 730 

None of the wife except her rights absorbed. 

Should ask law what it was law paused about — 

If law were dubious still whose word to take, 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 87 

The husband's — dignified and dereHct, 

Or the wife's — the . . . what I tell you. It should be. 735 

Guide's first step was to take pen, indite 

A letter to the Abate, — not his own, 

His wife's, — she should re-write, sign, seal and send. 

She liberally told, the household-news. 

Rejoiced her vile progenitors were gone, 740 

Revealed their malice — how they even laid 

A last injunction on her, when they fled. 

That she should forthwith find a paramour, 

Complot with him to gather spoil enough. 

Then burn the house down, — taking previous care 745 

To poison all its inmates overnight, — 

And so companioned, so provisioned too. 

Follow to Rome and there join fortunes gay. 

This letter, traced in pencil-characters, 

Guido as easily got re-traced in ink 750 

By his wife's pen, guided from end to end, 

As if it had, been just so much Chinese. 

For why ? That wife could broider, sing perhaps, 

Pray certainly, but no more read than write 

This letter "which yet write she must," he said, 755 

" Being half courtesy and compliment. 

Half sisterliness : take the thing on trust! " 

She had as readily re-traced the words 

Of her own death-warrant. — in some sort''twas so. 

This letter the Abate in due course 760 

Communicated to such curious souls 

In Rome as needs must pry into the cause 

Of quarrel, why the Comparini fled 

The Franceschini, whence the grievance grew. 

What the hubbub meant : " Nay, — see the wife's own word, 765 

Authentic answer! Tell detractors too 

There 's a plan formed, a programme figured here 

— Pray God no after-practice put to proof. 

This letter cast no light upon, one day ! " 

So much for what should work in Rome : back now 770 

To Arezzo, follow up tlie project there. 

Forward the next step with as bold a foot. 

And plague Pompilia to the height, you see! 

Accordingly did Guido set himself 

To worry up and down, across, around, 775 

The woman, hemmed in by her household-bars, — 

Chase her about the coop of dailv life. 

Having first stopped each outlet thence save one 

Which, like bird with a ferret in her haunt, 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

She needs must seize as sole way of escape 780 

Though there was tied and twittering a decoy 

To seem as if it tempted, — just the plume 

O' the popinjay, not a real respite there 

From tooth and cjaw of something in the dark, — 

Giuseppe Caponsacchi. 

Now begins , 785 

The tenebrific ^ passage of the tale : 
How hold a light, display the cavern's gorge? 
How. in this phase of the aifair, show truth? 
Here is the dying wife who smiles and says 
" So it was, — so it was not, — how it was, 790 

I never knew nor ever care to know — " 
Till they all weep, physician, man of law, 
Even that poor old bit of battered brass 
Beaten out of all shape by the world's sins. 
Common utensil of the lazar-house — 795 

Confessor Celestino groans " 'T is truth. 
All truth and only truth : there 's something here. 
Some presence in the room beside us all. 
Something that every lie expires before : 

No question she was pure from first to last." 800 

So far is well and helps us to believe : 
But beyond, she the helpless, simple-sweet 
Or silly-sooth, unskilled to break one blow 
At her good fayie by putting finger forth, — 
How can she render service to the truth ? 805 

The bu^d says " So I fluttered where a springe . 
Caught me : the springe did not contrive itself, 
That I know : who contrived it, God forgive!" 
But we, who hear no voice and have dry eyes, 
Must ask, — we cannot else, absolving her, — 810 

How of the part played by that same decoy 
r the catching, caging? Was himself caught first? 
We deal here with no innocent at least. 
No witless victim, — he's a man of the age 
And priest beside, — persuade the mocking world 815 

Mere charity boiled over in this sort! 
He whose own safety too, — (the Pope's apprised — 
Good-natured with the secular offence. 
The Pope looks grave on priesthood in a scrape) 
Our priest's own safety therefore, may-be life, 820 

Hangs on the issue! You will find it hard. 
Guido is here to meet you with fixed foot. 
Stiff like a statue — '' Leave what went before! 
My wife fled i' the company of a priest, 

I Tenebrific : gloomy. 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 89 

Spent two days and two nights alone with him : 825 

Leave what came after! " He stands hard to throw. /? , 

Moreover priests are merely flesh and blood ; (^/tt^f^ -^^' 

When we get weakness, and no guilt beside, 

"T is no such great ill-fortune : finding grey. 

We gladly call that white which might be black, 830 

Too used to the double-dye. So, if the priest, 

Moved by Pompilia's youth and beauty, gave 

Way to the natural weakness. . . . Anyhow 

Here be facts, charactery ; ^ what they spell 

Determine, and thence pick what sense you may ! 835 

There was a certain young bold handsome priest 

Popular in the city, far and wide 

Famed, since Arezzo's but a little place. 

As the best of good companions, gay and grave 

At the decent minute ; settled in his stall, 840 

Or sidling, lute on lap, by lady's couch, 

Ever the courtly Canon ; see in him 

A proper star to climb and culminate, 

Have its due handbreadth of the heaven at Rome, 

Though meanwhile pausing on Arezzo's edge, 845 

As modest candle does 'mid mountain fog, 

To rub off redness and rusticity 

Ere it sweep chastened, gain the silver-sphere! 

Whether through Guido's absence or what else. 

This Caponsacchi, favorite of the town, 850 

Was yet no friend of his nor free o' the house, 

Though both moved in the regular magnates' march : 

Each must observe the other's tread and halt 

At church, saloon, theatre, house of play. 

Who could help noticing the husband's slouch, 855 

The black of his brow — or miss the news that buzzed 

Of how the little solitary wife 

Wept and looked out of window all day long? 

What need of minute search into such springs 

As start men, set o' the move? — machinery 860 

Old as earth, obvious as the noonday sun. 

Why, take men as they come, — an instance now, — 

Of all those who have simply gone to see 

Pompilia on her deathbed since four days, 

Half at the least are, call it how you please, 865 

In love with her — I don't except the priests 

Nor even the old confessor whose eves run 

Over at what he styles his sister's voice 

Who died so early and weaned him from the world. 

Well, had they viewed her ere the paleness pushed 870 

* Charactery : manner or means of expressing by characters. 



90 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

The last o" the red o' the rose away, while yet 

Some hand, adventurous 'twixt the wind and her, 

Might let shy life run back and raise the flower 

Rich with reward up to the guardian's face, — 

Would they have kept that hand employed all day 875 

At fumbling on with prayer-book pages ? No ! 

Men are men : why then need I say one word 

More than that our mere man the Canon here 

Saw, pitied, loved Pompilia? 

This is why ; 
This startling why : that Caponsacchi's self — 880 

Whom foes and friends alike avouch, for good 
Or ill, a man of truth whatever betide, 
Intrepid altogether, reckless too 
How his own fame and fortune, tossed to the winds, 
Suffer by any turn the adventure take, 885 

Nay, more — not thrusting, like a badge to hide, 
'Twixt shirt and skin a joy which shown is shame - 
But flirting flag-like i' the face o' the world 
This tell-tale kerchief, this conspicuous love 
For the lady, — oh, called innocent love, I know I 890 

Only, such scarlet fiery innocence 
As most folk would try muftle up in shade, — 
'T is strange then that this else abashless mouth 
Should yet maintain, for truth's sake which is God's, 
That it was not he made the first advance, 895 

That, even ere word had passed between the two, 
Pompilia penned him letters, passionate prayers, 
If not love, then so simulating love 
That he, no novice to the taste of thyme. 

Turned from such over-luscious honey-clot 900 

At end o' the flower, and would not lend his lip 
Till . . . but the tale here frankly outsoars faith : 
There must be falsehood somewhere. For her part, 
Pompilia quietly constantly avers 

She never penned a letter in her life 905 

Nor to the Canon nor any other man, 
Being incompetent to write and read : 
Nor had she ever uttered word to him, nor he 
To her till that same evening when they met, 
She on her window-terrace, he beneath 910 

r the public street, as was their fateful chance. 
And she adjured him in the name of God 
To find out, bring to pass where, when and how 
Escape with him to Rome might be contrived. 
Means were found, plan laid, time fixed, she avers, 915 

And heart assured to heart in loyalty. 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. ' 91 

All at an impulse! All extemporized 

As in romance-books ! Is that credible ? 

Well, yes : as she avers this with calm mouth 

Dying, I do think "Credible!" you'd cry — 920 

Did not the priest's voice come to break the spell. 

They questioned him apart, as the custom is, 

When first the matter made a noise at Rome, 

And he, calm, constant then as she is now. 

For truth's sake did assert and re-assert 925 

Those letters called him to her and he came, 

— Which damns the story credible otherwise. 
Why should this man, — mad to devote himself, 
Careless what comes of his own fame, the first, — 

Be studious thus to publish and declare 930 

Just what the lightest nature loves to hide. 
So screening lady from the byword's laugh 
'• First spoke the lady, last the cavalier! " 

— I say, — why should the man tell truth just now 

When graceful lying meets such ready shrift? 935 

Or is there a first moment for a priest 

As for a woman, when invaded shame 

Must have its first and last excuse to show? 

Do both contrive love's entry in the mind 

Shall look, i' the manner of it, a surprise. — 940 

That after, once the flag o' the fort hauled down, 

Etfrontery may sink drawbridge, open gate, 

Welcome and entertain the conqueror? 

Or what do you say to a touch of the devil's worst ? 

Can it be that the husband, he who wrote 945 

The letter to his brother I told you of, 

r the name of her it meant to criminate, — 

What if he wrote those letters to the priest? 

Further the priest says, when it first befell. 

This folly o' the letters, that he checked the flow, 950 

Put them back lightly each with its reply. 

Here again vexes new discrepancy : 

There never reached her eye a word from him : 

He did write but she could not read — could just 

Burn the offence to wifehood, womanhood, 955 

So did burn : never bade him come to her. 

Yet when it proved he must come, let him come, 

And when he did come though uncalled, — why, spoke 

Prompt by an inspiration : thus it chanced. 

Will you go somewhat back to understand? 960 

When first, pursuant to his plan, there sprang. 
Like an uncaged beast, Guido's cruelty 
On soul and body of his wife, she cried 



92 * THE RING AND J HE BOOK. 

To those whom law appoints resource for such, 

The secular guardian, — that "s the Governor, 965 

And the Archbishop, — that 's the spiritual guide. 

And prayed them take the claws from out her flesh 

Now, this is ever the ill consequence 

Of being noble, poor and difficult, 

Ungainly, yet too great to disregard, — 970 

This — that born peers and friends hereditary, — 

Though disinclined to help from their own store 

The opprobrious wight, put penny in his poke 

From private purse or leave the door ajar 

When he goes wistful by at dinner-time, — 975 

Yet, if his needs conduct him where they sit 

Smugly in office, judge this, bishop that. 

Dispensers of the shine and shade o' the place — 

And if, friend's door shut and friend's purse undrawn, 

Still potentates may find the office-seat 980 

Do as good service at no cost — give help 

By-the-bye, pay up traditional dues at once 

Just through a feather-weight too much i' the scale. 

Or finger-tip forgot at the balance-tongue, — 

Why, only churls refuse, or iMolinists. 985 

Thus when, in the first roughness of surprise 

At Guide's wolf-face whence the sheepskin fell, 

The frightened couple, all bewilderment. 

Rushed to the Governor, — who else rights wrong? 

Told him their tale of wi'ong and craved redress — 990 

Why, then the Governor woke up to the fact 

That Guido was a friend of old, poor Count! — 

So, promptly paid his tribute, promised the pair, 

Wholesome chastisement should soon cure their qualms 

Next time they came, wept, prated and told lies : 995 

So stopped all prating, sent them dumb to Rome. 

Well, now it was Pompilia's turn to try : 

The troubles pressing on her, as I said. 

Three times she rushed, maddened by misery. 

To the other mighty man, sobbed out her prayer looo 

At footstool of the Archbishop — fast the friend 

Of her husband also! Oh, good friends of yore! 

So, the Archbishop, not to be outdone 

By the Governor, break custom more than he. 

Thrice bade the foolish woman stop her t(Migue, 1005 

Unloosed her hands from harassing his gout. 

Coached her and carried her to the Count again, 

— His old friend should be master in his house. 

Rule his wife and correct her faults at need! 

Well, driven from post to pillar in this wise, loio 

She, as a last resource, betook herself 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 93 

To one, should be no family-friend at least, 

A simple friar o' the city ; confessed to him, 

Then told how fierce temptation of release 

By self-dealt death was busy with her soul, 1015 

And urged that he put this in words, write plain 

For one who could not write, set down her prayer 

That Pietro and Violante, parent-like 

If somehow not her parents, should for love 

Come save her, pluck from out the flame the brand 1020 

Themselves had thoughtlessly thrust in so deep 

To send gay-colored sparkles up and cheer 

Their seat at the chimney-corner. The good friar 

Promised as much at the moment ; but, alack. 

Night brings discretion : he was no one's friend, 1025 

Yet presently found he could not turn about 

Nor take a step i' the case and fail to tread 

On someone's toe who either was a friend. 

Or a friend's friend, or friend's friend thrice-removed, 

And woe to friar by whom offences come! 1030 

So. the course being plain, — with a general sigh 

At matrimony the profound mistake, — 

He threw reluctantly the business up, 

Having his other penitents to mind. 

If then, all outlets thus secured save one, 1035 

At last she took to the open, stood and stared 

With her wan face to see where God might wait — 

And there found Caponsacchi wait as well 

For the precious something at perdition's edge. 

He only was predestinate to save, — 1040 

And if they recognized in a critical flash 

From the zenith, each the other, her need of him, 

His need of . . . say, a woman to perish for. 

The regular way o' the world, yet break no vow, 

Do no harm save to himself, — if this were thus? 1045 

How do you say? It were improbable ; 

So is the legend of my patron-saint. 

Anyhow, whether, as Guido states the case, 

Pompilia, — like a starving wretch i' the street 

Who stops and rifles the first passenger 1050 

In the great right of an excessive wrong, — 

Did somehow call this stranger and he came,— 

Or whether the strange sudden interview 

Blazed as when star and star must needs go close 

Till each hurts each and there is loss in lieaven — 1055 

Whatever way in this strange world it was, — 

Pompilia and Caponsacchi met, in fine. 



94 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

She at her window, he i' the street beneath, 
And understood each other at first look. 

All was determined and performed at once. 1060 

And on a certain April evening, late 

r the month, this girl of sixteen, bride and wife 

Three years and over, — she who hitherto 

Had never taken twenty steps in Rome 

Beyond the church, pinned to her mother's gown, 1065 

Nor, in Arezzo, knew her way through street 

Except what led to the Archbishop's door, — 

Such an one rose up in the dark, laid hand 

On what came first, clothes and a trinket or two. 

Belongings of her own in the old day, — 1070 

Stole from the side o' the sleeping spouse — who knows ? 

Sleeping perhaps, silent for certain, — slid 

Ghost-like from great dark room to great dark room 

In through the tapestries and out again 

And onward, unembarrassed as a fate, 1075 

Descended staircase, gained last door of all, 

Sent it wide open at first push of palm. 

And there stood, first time, last and only time, 

At liberty, alone in the open street, — 

Unquestioned, unmolested found herself 1080 

At the city gate, by Caponsacchi's side, 

Hope there, joy there, life and all good again. 

The carriage there, the convoy there, light there 

Broadening ever into blaze at Rome 

And breaking small what long miles lay between ; 1085 

Up she sprang, in he followed, they were safe" 

The husband quotes this for incredible. 

All of the story from first word to last : 

Sees the priest's hand throughout upholding hers. 

Traces his foot to the alcove, that night, 1090 

Whither and whence blindfold he knew the way, 

Proficient in all craft and stealthiness ; 

And cites for proof a servant, eye that watched 

And ear that opened to purse secrets up, 

A woman-spy, — suborned to give and take 1095 

Letters and tokens, do the work of shame 

The more adroitly that herself, who helped 

Communion thus between a tainted pair. 

Had long since been a leper thick in spot, 

A common trull o' the town: she witnessed all, iioo 

Helped many meetings, partings, took her wage 

And then told Guido the whole matter. Lies! 

The woman's life confutes her word, — her word 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 



95 



Confutes itself: " Thus, thus and thus I lied." 

"And thus, no question, still you lie," we say. 1105 

" Ay, but at last, e'en have it how you will, 

Whatever the means, whatever the way, explodes ■ 

The consummation "—the accusers shriek : 

'• Here is the wife avowedly found in flight. 

And the companion of her flight, a priest ; mo 

She flies her husband, he the church his spouse : 

What is this?" 

Wife and priest alike reply 

" This is the simple thing it claims to be, 

A course we took for life and honor's sake, 

Very strange, very justifiable." 1 1 1 c 

She says, " God put it in my head to fly, 

As when the martin migrates : autumn claps 

Her hands, cries 'Winter's coming, will be here, 

OiTwith you ere the white teeth overtake! 

Flee." SoXfled : this friend was the warm day, 1120 

The south wind and whatever favors flight ; 
Xtook the favor, had the help, how else.? 

And so we did fly rapidly all night. 

All day, all night — a longer night — again. 

And then another day, longest of days, 1125 

And all the while, whether we fled or stopped, 

Iscarce know how or why, one thought filled both, 

'Fly and arrive! ' So long as I found strength 

I_talkeTi with my companion, told him much. 

Knowing that he knew more, knew me, knew God 1130 

And God's disposal of me, — but the sense 

O' the blessed flight absorbed me in the main. 

And speech became mere talking through a sleep. 

Till at the end of that last longest night 

In a red daybreak, when we reached an inn j 135 

And my companion whispered ' Next stage — Rome! ' 

Sudden the weak flesh fell like piled-up cards, 
All the frail fabric at a fingers touch. 
And prostrate the poor soul too, and I said 
' But though Count Guido were a furlong off". 
Just on me, I must stop and rest awhile! ' 
Then something like a huge white wave o' the sea 
Broke o'er my brain and buried me in sleep 
Blessedly, till it ebbed and left me loose. 
And where was I found but on a strange bed 
In a strange room like hell, roaring with noise, 
Ruddy with flame, and filled with men, in front 



1 140 



1 145 



96 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Who but the man you call my husband? ay — 

Count Guido once more between heaven and me, 

For there my heaven stood, my salvation, yes — 1 150 

That Caponsacchi all my heaven of help. 

Helpless himself, held prisoner in the hands 

Of men who looked up in my husband's face 

To take the fate thence he should signify, 

Just as the way was at Arezzo. Then, 1155 

Not for my sake but his who had helped me — 

I sprang up, reached him with one bound, and seized 

The sword o' the felon, trembling at his side. 

Fit creature of a coward, unsheathed the thing 

And would have pinned him through the poison-bag 1 160 

To the wall and left him there to palpitate, 

As you serve scorpions, but men interposed — 

Disarmed me, gave his life to him again 

That he might take mine and the other lives. 

And he has done so. I submit myself !'' 1165 

The priest says — oh, and in the main result 

The facts asseverate, he truly says. 

As to the very act and deed of him. 

However you mistrust the mind o' the man — 

The flight was just for flight's sake, no pretext 1 170 

For aught except to set Pompilia free. 

He says " I cite the husband's self's worst charge 

In proof of my best word for both of us. 

Be it conceded that so many times 

We took our pleasure in his palace : then, 1 175 

What need to fly at all? — or flying no less, 

What need to outrage the lips sick and white - 

Of a woman, and bring ruin down beside. 

By halting when Rome lay one stage beyond?" 

So does he vindicate Pompilia's fame. 1 180 

Confirm her story in all points but one — 

This ; that, so fleeing and so breathing forth 

Her last strength in the prayer to halt awhile. 

She makes confusion of the reddening white 

Which was the sunset when her strength gave way, 1 185 

And the next sunrise and its whitening red 

Which she revived in when her husband came : 

She mixes both times, morn and eve, in one. 

Having lived through a blank of night 'twixt each 

Though dead-sleep, unaware as a corpse, 1 190 

She on the bed above ; her fiiend below 

Watched in the doorway of the inn the while, 

Stood i' the red o' the morn, that she mistakes, 

In act to rouse and quicken the tardy crew 

And hurry out the horses, have the stage 1195 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 



97 



Over, the last league, reach Rome and be safe : 
When up came Guido. 

Guide's tale begins — • 
How he and his whole household, drunk to death 
By some enchanted potion, poppied drugs 
Plied by the wife, lay powerless in gross sleep 1200 

And left the spoilers unimpeded way. 
Could not shake of!" their poison and pursue, 
Till noontide, then made shift to get on horse 
And did pursue: which means he took his time. 
Pressed on no more than lingered after, step 1205 

By step, just making sure o' the fugitives. 
Till at the nick of time, he saw his chance, 
Seized it. came up with and surprised the pair. 
How he must needs have gnawn lip and gnashed teeth, 
Taking successively at tower and town, 12 10 

Village and roadside, still the same report 
" Yes, such a pair arrived an hour ago, 
Sat in the carriage just where now you stand. 
While we got horses ready, — turned deaf ear 
To all entreaty they would even alight ; 12 15 

Counted the minutes and resumed their course." 
Would they indeed escape, arrive at Rome, 
Leave no least loop-hole to let murder through, 
But foil him of his captured infamy. 

Prize of guilt proved and perfect ? So it seemed. 1220 

Till, oh the happy chance, at last stage, Rome 
But two short hours off, Castelnuovo reached. 
The guardian angel gave reluctant place, 
Satan stepped forward with alacritv, 

Pompilia's flesh and blood succumbed, perforce 1225 

A halt was, and her husband had his will. 
Perdue he couched, counted out hour by hour 
Till he should spy in the east a signal-streak — 
Night had been, morrow was, triumph would be. 
Do you see the plan deliciously complete ? 1230 

The rush upon the unsuspecting sleep. 
The easy e.xecution. the outcrv 
Over the deed •• Take notice all the world I 
These two dead bodies, locked still in embrace. — 
The man is Caponsacchi and a priest, 1235 

The woman is ni}- wife : they fled me late. 
Thus have I found and you behold them thus, 
And may judge me : do you approve or no ? " 

Success did seem not so improbable. 

But that already Satan's laugh was heard, 1240 

His black back turned on Guido — left i' the lurch 



98 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Or rather, baulked of suit and service now, 
Left to improve on both by one deed more, 
Burn up the better at no distant day, 
■ Body and soul one holocaust to hell. • 1245 

Anyhow, of this natural consequence 
Did just the last link of the long chain snap : 
For an eruption was o' the priest, alive 
And alert, calm, resolute and formidable, 
Not the least look of fear in that broad brow — 1250 

One not to be disposed of by surprise. 
And armed moreover — who had guessed as much ? 
Yes, there stood he in secular costume 
Complete from head to heel, with sword at side. 
He seemed to know the trick of perfectlv. 1255 

There was no prompt suppression of the man 
As he said calmly '• I have saved your wife 
From death ; there was no other way but this ; 
Of what do I defraud you except death ? 

Charge any wrong beyond, I answer it." 1260 

Guido, the valorous, had met his match. 
Was forced to demand help instead of fight. 
Bid the authorities o' the place lend aid 
And make the best of a broken matter so. 
They soon obeyed the summons — I suppose, 1265 

Apprised and ready, or not far to seek — 
Laid hands on Capon.sacchi, found in fault, 
A priest yet flagrantly accoutred thus, — 
Then, to make good Count Guido's further charge, 
Proceeded, prisoner made lead the way, 1270 

In a crowd, upstairs to the chamber-door 
Where wax-white, dead asleep, deep beyond dream, 
As the priest laid her, lay Pompilia yet. 

And as he mounted step and step with the crowd 

How I see Guido taking heart again! 1275 

He knew his wife so well and the way of her — 

How at the outbreak she would shroud her shame 

In helTs heart, would it mercifully yawn — 

How, failing that, her forehead to his foot. 

She would crouch silent till the great doom fell, 1280 

Leave him triumphant with the crowd to see 

Guilt motionless or writhing like a worm! 

No ! Second misadventure, this worm turned, 

I told you : would have slain him on the spot 

With his own weapon, but they seized her hands: 1285 

Leaving her tongue free, as it tolled the knell 

Of Guido's hope so lively late. The past 

Took quite another shape now. She who shrieked 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 99 

" At least and for ever I ani mine and God's, 

Thanks to his liberating angel Death — 1290 

Never again degraded to be yours 

The ignoble noble, the unmanly man, 

The beast below the beast in brutishness!" — 

This was the froward child, " the restif lamb 

Used to be cherished in his breast," he groaned — 1295 

" Eat from his hand and drink from out his cup, 

The while his fingers pushed their loving way 

Through curl on curl of that soft coat — alas. 

And she all silverly baaed gratitude 

While meditating mischief!" — and so forth. 1300 

He must invent another story now! 

The ins and outs o' the rooms were searched : he found 

Or showed for found the abominable prize — 

Love-letters from his wife who cannot write, 

Love-letters in reply o' the priest — thank God! — 1305 

Who can write and confront his character 

With this, and prove the false thing forged throughout : 

Spitting whereat, he needs must spatter whom 

But Guido's self? — that forged and falsified 

One letter called Pompilia's, past dispute : 1310 

Then why not these to make sure still more sure? 

So was the case concluded then and there : 

Guido preferred his charges in due form. 

Called on the law to adjudicate, consigned 

The accused ones to the Prefect of the place, 13 15 

(Oh mouse-birth of that mountain-like revenge!) 

And so to his own place betook himself 

After the spring that failed, — the wildcat's way. 

The captured parties were conveyed to Rome ; 

Investigation followed here i' the court — 1320 

Soon to review the fruit of its own work. 

From then to now being eight months and no more. 

Guido kept out of sight and safe at home : 

The Abate, brother Paolo, helped most 

At words when deeds were out of question, pushed 1325 

Nearest the purple, ^ best played deputy. 

So, pleaded, Guido's representative 

At the court shall soon try Guido's self, — what 's more. 

The court that also took — I told you, Sir — 

That statement of the couple, how a cheat 1330 

Had been i' the birth of the baba, no child of theirs. 

That was the prelude ; this, the play's first act : 

Whereof we wait what comes, crown, close of all. 

1 The purple : the color of the cardinals. 



loo THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Well, the result was something of a shade 
On the parties thus accused, — how otherwise? 1335 

Shade, but with shine as unmistakable. 
Each had a prompt defence : Pompilia first — 
•• Earth was made hell to me who did no harm : 
I only could emerge one way from hell 

By catching at the one hand held me, so 134° 

I caught at it and thereby stepped to heaven : 
If that be wrong, do with me what you will ! " 
Then Caponsacchi with a grave grand sweep 
O' the arm as though his soul warned baseness off — 
" If as a man, then much more as a priest '345 

I hold me bound to help weak innocence : 
If so my worldly reputation burst, 
Being the bubble^ it is, why, burst it may : 
Blame I can bear though not blameworthiness. 
But use your sense first, see if the miscreant proved, 1350 

The man who tortured thus the woman, thus 
• ■ Have not both laid the trap and fixed the lure 
Over the pit should bury body and soul ! 
His facts are lies : his letters are the fact — 
An infiltration flavored with himself! 1355 

As for the fancies — whether . . . what is it you say? 
The lady loves me, whether I love her 
In the forbidden sense of your surmise, — 
If, with the midday blaze of truth above, 

The unlidded eye of God awake, aware, 1360 

You needs must pry about and trace the birth 
Of each stray beam of light may traverse night, 
To the night's sun that 's Lucifer himself. 
Do so, at other time, in other place. 

Not now nor here ! Enough that first to last 1365 

I never touched her lip nor she my hand 
Nor either of us thought a thought, much less 
Spoke a word which the Virgin might not hear. 
Be such your question, thus I answer it." 

Then the court had to make its mind up, spoke. 1370 

"It is a thorny question, yea, a tale 
Hard to believe, but not impossible : 
Who can be absolute for either side ? 
A middle course is happily open yet. 

Here has a blot surprised the social blank, — 1375 

Whether through favor, feebleness or fault, 
No matter, leprosy has touched our robe 
And we unclean must needs be purified. 

'^ If so my -worldly reputatio7i burst, being the bubble it is : recalls Shakespeare, 
" As You Like It," II. vii. 152. 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. loi 

Here is a wife makes holiday from home, 

A priest caught playing truant to his church, 1380 

In masquerade moreover: both allege 

Enough excuse to stop our lifted scourge 

Which else would heavily fall. On the other hand, 

Here is a husband, ay and man of mark, 

Who comes complaining here, demands redress . 1385 

As if he were the pattern of desert — 

The while those plaguy allegations frown, 

Forbid we grant him the redress he seeks. 

To all men be our moderation known! 

Rewarding none while compensating each, 1390 

Hurting all round though harming nobody. 

Husband, wife, priest, scot-free not one shall 'scape, 

Yet priest, wife, husband, boast the unbroken head 

From application of our excellent oil : 

So that, whatever be the fact, in fine, 1395 

We make no miss of justice in a sort. 

First, let the husband stomach as he may. 

His wife shall neither be returned him, no — 

Nor branded, whipped and caged, but just consigned 

To a convent and the quietude she craves ; 1400 

So is he rid of his domestic plague : 

What better thing can happen to a man? 

Next, let the priest retire — unshent, unshamed, 

Unpunished as for perpetrating crime. 

But relegated (not imprisoned. Sirs!) 1405 

Sent for three years to clarify his youth 

At Civita,^ a rest by the way to Rome : 

Thfere let his life skim oiT its last of lees 

Nor keep this dubious color. Judged the cause : 

All parties may retire, content, we hope." 1410 

That 's Rome's way, the traditional road of law ; 

Whither it leads is what remains to tell. 

The priest went to his relegation-place, 

The wife to her convent, brother Paolo 

To the arms of brother Guido with the news 141 5 

And this beside — his charge was countercharged; 

The Comparini, his old brace of hates. 

Were breathed and vigilant and venomous now — 

Had shot a second bolt where the first stuck. 

And followed up the pending dowry-suit 1420 

By a procedure should release the wife 

From so much of the marriage-bond as barred 

Escape when Guido turned the screw too much 

1 Civita : Civita Vecchia, a seaport near Rome. 



102 THE RIXG AiXD THE BOOK. 

On his wife's flesh and blood, as husband may. 

No more defence, she turned and made attack. 1425 

Claimed now divorce from bed and board, in short : 

Pleaded such subtle strokes of cruelty. 

Such slow sure siege laid to her body and soul. 

As, proved, — and proofs seemed coming thick and fast, — 

Would gain both freedom and the dowry back 1430 

Even should the first suit leave them in his grasp : 

So urged the Comparini for the wife. 

Guido had gained not one of the good things 

He grasped at by his creditable plan 

O' the flight and following and the rest : the suit 1435 

That smouldered late was fenned to fury new, 

This adjunct came to help with fiercer fire. 

While he had got himself a quite new plague — 

Found the world's face an universal grin 

At this last best of the Hundred Merry Tales 1 1440 

Of how a young and sprightly clerk devised 

To carry off" a spouse that moped too much. 

And cured her of the vapors in a trice : 

And how the husband, playing Vulcan's- part. 

Told by the Sun. started in hot pursuit 1445 

To catch the lovers, and came halting up. 

Cast his net and then called the Gods to see 

The convicts in their rosy impudence — 

Whereat said Mercury "Would that I were Mars!" 

Oh it was rare, and naughty all the same! 1450 

Brief, the wife's courage and cunning, — the priest's show 

Of chivalry and adroitness, — last not least. 

The husband — how he ne'er showed teeth at all. 

Whose bark had promised biting; but just sneaked 

Back to his kennel, tail "twixt legs, as 't were, — 1455 

All this was hard to gulp down and digest. 

So pays the devil his liegeman, brass for gold. 

But this was at Arezzo : here in Rome 

Brave Paolo bore up against it all — 

Battled it out, nor wanting to himself 1460 

Nor Guido nor the House whose weight he bore 

Pillar-like, by no force of arm but brain. 

He knew his Rome, what wheels to set to work ; 

Plied influential folk, pressed to the ear 

^ Huitdred Merry Tales: Browning Roman citizen would, however, be more likely 

seems to be thinking here of " A C Mery to have in mind Boccaccio's " Decameron," 

Talys " (A Hiindre,d Merry Tales), a collec- which contained a hundred stories, 
tion of short stories published in England in - Vulcan's part: referring to Homer 

1526 by John Rastell. The titles in the table ("Odyssey," viii. 266 ff.), where Hephaestus 

of contents are exactly in the manner of the (Vulcan) is deceived by Aphrodite (Venus), 

story cited here, all beginning with " Of." A his wife, and Ares (Mars), her lover. 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 103 

Of the efficacious purple, pushed his way 1465 

To the old Pope's self, — past decency indeed, — 

Praying him take the matter in his hands 

Out of the regular court's incompetence. 

But times are changed and nephews out of date 

And favoritism unfashionable : the Pope 1470 

Said " Render Cajsar what is Cesar's due! " 

As for the Comparini's counter-plea, 

He met that by a counter-plea again, 

Made Guido claim divorce — with help so far 

By the trial's issue : for, why punishment 1475 

However slight unless for guiltiness 

However slender? — and a molehill serves 

Much as a mountain of offence this way. 

So was he gathering strength on every side 

And growing more and more to menace — when 1480 

All of a terrible moment came the blow 

That beat down Paolo's fence, ended the play 

O' the foil and brought mannaia^ on the stage. 

Five months had passed now since Pompilia"s flight, 

Months spent in peace among the Convert nuns. 1485 

This, — being, as it seemed, for Guido's sake 

Solely, what pride might call imprisonment 

And quote as something gained, to friends at home, — 

This naturally was at Guido's charge : 

Grudge it he might, but penitential fare, 1490 

Prayers, preachings, who but he defrayed the cost? 

So, Paolo dropped, as pro.xy, doit by doit 

Like heart's blood, till — what 's here? What notice comes? 

The convent's self makes application bland 

That, since Pompilia's health is fast o' the wane, 1495 

She may have leave to go combine her cure 

Of soul with cure of body, mend her mind 

Together with her thin arms and sunk eyes 

That want fresh air outside the convent-wall. 

Say in a friendly house, — and which so fit 1500 

As a certain villa in the Pauline way. 

That happens to hold Pietro and his wife. 

The natural guardians ? " Oh, and shift the care 

You shift the cost, too ; Pietro paj-s in turn, 

And lightens Guido of a load! And then, 1505 

Villa or convent, two names for one thing. 

Always the sojourn means imprisonment, 

Domiis pro carcere "^ — nowise we relax. 

Nothing abate : how answers Paolo? " 

' Mannaia : see note, I. 1320. ' Domtis pro carcere : see note, II. 1333. 



104 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

You. 
What would you answer? All so smooth and fair. 1510 

Even PauPs astuteness sniffed no harm i' the world. 
He authorized the transfer, saw it made 
And, two months after, reaped the fruit of the same, 
' Having to sit down, rack his brain and find 
What phrase should serve him best to notify 1515 

Our Guido that by happy providence 
A son and heir, a babe was born to him 
r the villa, — go tell sympathizing friends! 
Yes, such had been Pompilia's privilege : 

She, when she fled was one month gone with child, 1520 

Known to herself or unknown, either way 
Availing to explain (say men of art) 
The strange and passionate precipitance 
Of maiden startled into motherhood 

Which changes body and soul by nature's law. 1525 

So when the she-dove breeds, strange yearnings come 
For the unknown shelter by undreamed-of shores, 
And there is born a blood-pulse in her heart 
To fight if needs be, though with flap of wing. 
For the wool-flock or the fur-tuft, though a hawk 1530 

Contest the prize, — wherefore, she knows not yet. 
Anyhow, thus to Guido came the news. 
" I shall have quitted Rome ere you arrive 
To take the one step left," — wrote Paolo. 
Then did the winch o' the winepress of all hate, 1535 

Vanity, disappointment, grudge and greed, 
Take the last turn that screws out pure revenge 
With a bright bubble at the brim beside — 
By an heir's birth he was assured at once 

O' the main prize, all the money in dispute : 1540 

Pompilia's dowry might revert to her 
Or stay with him as law's caprice should point, — 
But now — now — what was Pietro's shall be hers. 
What was hers shall remain her own, — if hers. 
Why then, — oh, not her husband's but — her heir's! 1545 

That heir being his too, all grew his at last 
By this road or by that road, since they join. 
Before, why, push he Pietro out o' the world, — 
The current of the money stopped, you see, 
Pompilia being proved no Pietro's child : 1550 

Or let it be Pompilia's life he quenched, 
Again the current of the money stopped, — 
Guido debarred his rights as husband soon. 
So the new process threatened ; — now, the chance, 
Now, the resplendent minute ! Clear the earth, 1555 

Cleanse the house, let the three but disappear 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 105 

A child remains, depositary of all. 

That Guido may enjoy his own again, 

Repair all losses by a master-stroke, 

Wipe out the past, all done all left undone, 1560 

Swell the good present to best evermore, 

Die into new life, which let blood baptize! 

So, i' the blue of a sudden sulphur-blaze, 

Both why there was one step to take at Rome, 

And why he should not meet with Paolo there, 1565 

He saw — the ins and outs to the heart of hell — 

And took the straight line thither swift and sure. 

He rushed to Vittiano, found four sons o' the soil, 

Brutes of his breeding, with one spark i' the clod 

That served for a soul, the looking up to him 1570 

Or aught called Franceschini as life, death. 

Heaven, hell, — lord paramount, assembled these. 

Harangued, equipped, instructed, pressed each clod 

With his will's imprint ; then took horse, plied spur, 

And so arrived, all five of them, at Rome 157c 

On Christmas-Eve, and forthwith found themselves 

Installed i' the vacancy and solitude 

Left them by Paolo, the considerate man 

Who, good as his word, had disappeared at once 

As if to leave the stage free. A whole week 1580 

Did Guido spend in studv of his part. 

Then played it fearless of a failure. One, 

Struck the year's clock whereof the hours are days, 

And off was rung o' the little wheels the chime 

"Good will on earth and peace to man : " but. two, 1585 

Proceeded the same bell and, evening come. 

The dreadful five felt finger-wise their way 

Across the town by blind cuts and black turns 

To the little lone suburban villa; knocked — 

" Who may be outside.' "' called a well-known voice. 1590 

" A friend of Caponsacchi's bringing friends 

A letter." 

That 's a test, the excusers say : 

Ay, and a test conclusive, I return. 

What? Had that name brought touch of guilt or taste 

Of fear with it, aught to dash the present joy icnr 

With memory of the sorrow just at end, — 

She, happy in her parents' arms at length 

With the new blessing of the two weeks' babe, — 

How had that name's announcement moved the wife? 

Or, as the other slanders circulate, 1600 

Were Caponsacchi no rare visitant 

On nights and days whither safe harbor lured. 



io6 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

What bait had been i' the name to ope the door? 

The promise of a letter? Stealthy guests 

Have secret watchwords, private entrances : 1605 

The man's own self might have been found inside 

And all the scheme made frustrate by a word. 

No : but since Guido knew, none knew so well, 

The man had never since returned to Rome 

Nor seen the wife's face more than villa's front, 1610 

So, could not be at hand to warn or save. — 

For that, he took this sure way to the end. 

'• Come in," bade poor Violante cheerfully, 

Drawing the door-bolt : that death was the first, 

Stabbed through and through. Pietro, close on her heels, 161 5 

Set up a cry — " Let me confess myself ! 

Grant but confession! " Cold steel was the grant. 

Then came Pompilia's turn. 

Then they escaped. 
The noise o' the slaughter roused the neighborhood. 
They had forgotten just the one thing more 1620 

Wliich saves i ' the circumstance, the ticket to-wit 
Which puts post-horses at a traveller's use : 
So, all on foot, desperate through the dark 
Reeled they like drunkards along open road, 
Accomplished a prodigious twenty miles 1625 

Homeward, and gained Baccano very near. 
Stumbled at last, deaf, dumb, blind through the feat. 
Into a grange and, one dead heap, slept there 
Till the pursuers hard upon their trace 

Reached them and took them, red from head to heel, 1630 

And brought them to the prison where they lie. 
Tiie couple were laid i' the church two days ago, 
And the wife lives yet by miracle. 

All is told. 
You hardly need ask what Count Guido says. 
Since something he must say. " I own the deed — " 1635 

(He cannot choose, — but — ) '" I declare the same 
Just and inevitable, — since no way else 
Was left me, but by this of taking life, 
To save my honor which is more than life. 
I exercised a husband's rights." To which 1640 

The answer is as prompt — '' There was no fault 
In any one o' the three to punish thus : 
Neither i' the wife, who kept all faith to you. 
Nor in the parents, whom yourself first duped. 
Robbed and maltreated, then turned out of doors. 1645 

You wronged and they endured wrong; yours the fault. 



THE OTHER HALF-ROME. 107 

Next, had endurance overpassed the mark 

And turned resentment needing remedy, — 

Nay. put the absurd impossible case, for once 

You were all blameless of the blame alleged 1650 

And they blameworthy where you fix all blame. 

Still, why this violation of the law? 

Yourself elected law should take its course. 

Avenge wrong, or show vengeance not your right ; 

Why, only when the balance in law's hand 1655 

Trembles against you and inclines the way 

O' the other party, do you make protest, 

Renounce arbitrament, flying out of court, 

And crying • Honor's hurt the sword must cure '? 

Aha, and so i' the middle of each suit 1660 

Trying i' the courts, — and you had three in play 

With an appeal to the Pope's self beside, — 

What, you may chop and change and right your wrongs 

Leaving the law to lag as she thinks fit? " 

That were too temptingly comrriodious. Count! 1665 

One would have still a remedy in reserve 

Should reach the safest oldest sinner, you see ! 

One's honor forsooth ? Does that take hurt alone 

From the extreme outrage ? I who have no wife, 

Being yet sensitive in my degree 1670 

As Guido, — must discover hurt elsewhere 

Which, half compounded-for in days gone by, 

May profitably break out now afresh. 

Need cure from my own expeditious hands. 

The lie that was, as it were, imputed me 1675 

When you objected to my contract's clause, — 

The theft as good as, one may say, alleged, 

When you, co-heir in a will, excepted. Sir, 

To my administration of effects, 

• — Aha, do you think law disposed of these? 1680 

My honor's touched and shall deal death around! 

Count, that were too commodious, I repeat! 

If any law be imperative on us all. 

Of all are you the enemy : out with you 

From the common light and air and life of man! 1685 



io8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 



IV. 



TERTIUM QUID. 

[Book IV. presents the condescending point of view of a critic who assumes to 
be the mouth-piece of the superior class, and to deHver the enhghtened and authori- 
tative opinion on the case. Indifference takes the place, here, of any special sym- 
pathy with either side, the speaker's only solicitude being to do himself credit in 
the eyes of his distinguished listeners, and to steer clear of any prejudices they may 
have. Accordingly, both sides are alternately elaborated, with a great show of 
cleverness, and the conclusion is lost in a mist of neutrality.] 

True, E.xcellency — as his Highness says, 

Though she 's not dead yet, she 's as good as stretched 

Symmetrical beside the other two ; 

Though he 's not judged yet, he 's the same as judged, 

So do the facts abound and superabound : 5 

And nothing hinders that we lift the case 

Out of the shade into the shine, allow 

Qualified persons to pronounce at last, 

Nay, edge in an authoritative word 

Between this rabble's-brabble of dolts and fools 10 

Who make up reasonless unreasoning Rome. 

" Now for the Trial !^' they roar: -the Trial to test 

The truth, weigh husband and weigh wife alike 

r the scales of law, make one scale kick the beam! " 

Law 's a macliine from which, to please the mob, 1 5 

Truth the divinity must needs descend 

And clear things at the play's fifth act — aha! 

Hammer into their noddles who was who 

And what was what. I tell the simpletons 

'• Could law be competent to such a feat 20 

'T were clone already : what begins ne.xt week 

Is end o' the Trial, last link of a chain 

Whereof the first was forged three years ago 

When law addressed herself to set wrong right, 

And proved so slow in taking the first step 25 

That ever some new grievance, — tort, retort. 

On one or the other side, — o'ertook i' the game, 

Retarded sentence, till this deed of death 

Is thrown in, as it were, last bale to boat 

Crammed to the edge with cargo — or passengers? 30 

' Trecentos i use? is : o/ie, jam satis est ! 



TERTIUM QUID. 109 

Hue appellel'' ^ — passengers, the word must be." 

Long since, the boat was loaded to my eyes. 

To hear the rabble and brabble, you'd call the case 

Fused and confused past human tinding out. 35 

One calls the square round, t' other the round square — 

And pardonably in that first surprise 

O' the blood that fell and splashed the diagram : 

But now we've used our eyes to the violent hue 

Can't we look through the crimson and trace lines? 40 

It makes a man despair of history, 

Eusebius - and the established fact — fig's end! 

Oh, give the fools their Trial, rattle away 

With the leash of lawyers, two on either side — 

One barks, one bites, — Masters Arcangeli 45 

And Spreti, — that 's the husband's ultimate hope 

Against the Fisc and the other kind of Fisc, 

Bound to do barking for the wife : bow — wow! 

Why, Excellency, we and his Highness here 

Would settle the matter as sufficiently 50 

As ever will Advocate This and Fiscal That 

And Judge the Other, with even — a word and a wink — 

We well know who for ultimate arbiter. 

Let us beware o' the basset-table^ — lest 

We jog the elbow of Her Eminence,* 55 

Jostle his cards, — he '11 rap you out a . . . st! 

By the window-seat! And here's the Marquis too! 

Indulge me but a moment : if I fail 

— Favored with such an audience, understand! — 

To set things right, why, class me with the mob 60 

As understander of the mind of man ! 

The mob, — now, that 's just how the error comes! 

Bethink you that you have to deal with plebsJ" 

The commonalty ; this is an episode 

In burgess-life. — why seek to aggrandize, 65 

Idealize, denaturalize the class ? 

People talk just as if they had to do 

With a noble pair that . . . Excellency, your ear! 

Stoop to me, Highness, — listen and look yourselves! 

This Pietro, this Violante, live their life 70 

■ Trecentos inserts, etc.: ho there! that as we should say, becomes " Sua Eminenza." 

is enough now! you are stowing in hundreds. Browning uses this idiom occasionally in the 

(Horace, " Satires," I. 5. 12). present book {eg 11. 1632, 1634), but not 

- Eusebius : historian, 265-338. regularly. 

' Basset : a game of cards fashionable in ^ Plebs : the lowest political division of 

the seventeenth century. the Roman people — plebeians opposed to 

* Her Eminence : an imitation of the the patricians, senators, and knights. 
Italian idiom, in which " His Eminence," 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

At Rome in the easy way that 's far from worst 

Even for their betters, — themselves love themselves, 

Spend their own oil in feeding their own lamp 

That their own faces may grow bright thereby. 

They get to fifty and over : how 's the lamp? 75 

Full to the depth o' the wick, — moneys so much ; 

And also with a remnant, — so much more 

Of moneys, — which there 's no consuming now. 

But, when the wick shall moulder out some day. 

Failing fresh twist of tow to use up dregs, 80 

Will lie a prize for the passer-by, — to-wit 

Anyone that can prove himself the heir. 

Seeing, the couple are wanting in a child : 

iVIeantime their wick swims in the safe broad bowl 

O' the middle rank, — not raised a beacon's height 85 

For wind to ravage, nor dropped till lamp graze ground 

Like cresset, mudlarks ^ poke now here now there. 

Going their rounds to probe the ruts i' the road 

Or fish the luck o" the puddle. Pietro's soul 

Was satisfied when cronies smirked, ''No wine 90 

Like Pietro's, and he drinks it every day! "' 

His wife's heart swelled her boddice. joyed its fill 

When neighbors turned heads wistfully at church, 

Sighed at the load of lace that came to pray. 

Well, having got through fifty years of flare, 95 

They burn out so, indulge so their dear selves. 

That Pietro finds himself in debt at last, 

As he were any lordling of us all : 

And, now that dark begins to creep on day, 

Creditors grow uneasy, talk aside, 100 

Take counsel, then importune all at once. 

For if the good fat rosy careless man, 

Who has not laid a ducat by, decease — 

Let the lamp fall, no heir at hand to catch — 

Why, being childless, there's a spilth i' the street 105 

O' the remnant, there 's a scramble for the dregs 

By the stranger : so. they grant him no long day 

But come in a body, clamor to be paid. 

What 's his resource? He asks and straight obtains 

The customary largess, dole dealt out no 

To, what we call our " poor dear shame-faced ones," 

In secret once a month to spare the shame 

O' the slothful and the spendthrift, — pauper-saints 

The Pope puts meat i' the mouth of, ravens they, 

And providence he — just what the mob admires! 115 

■ Mudlarks : sewer-cleaners and rag-pickers. 



TERTIUM QUID. in 

That is, instead of putting a prompt foot 

On selfish worthless human shigs whose sHme 

Has failed to lubricate their path in life, 

Why, the Pope picks the first ripe fruit that falls 

And gracious puts it in the vermin's way. 120 

Pietro could never save a dollar? Straight 

He must be subsidized at our expense : 

And for his wife — the harmless household sheep 

One ought not to see harassed in her age — 

Judge, by the way she bore adversity, 125 

O' the patient nature you ask pity for! 

How long, now, would the roughest marketman. 

Handling the creatures huddled to the knife. 

Harass a mutton ere she made a mouth 

Or menaced biting? Yet the poor sheep here, 130 

Violante. the old innocent burgess-wife. 

In her first difficulty showed great teeth 

Fit to crunch up and swallow a good round crime. 

She meditates the tenure of the Trust, 

Fidei cotnmissitui is the lawyer-phrase, 135 

These funds that only want an heir to take — 

Goes o'er the gamut o" the creditor's cry 

By semitones from whine to snarl high up 

And growl down low, one scale in sundry keys, — 

Pauses with a little compunction for the face 140 

Of Pietro frustrate of its ancient cheer, — 

Never a bottle now for friend at need, — 

Comes to a stop on her own frittered lace 

And neighborly condolences thereat. 

Then makes her mind up, sees the thing to do: 145 

And so. deliberate, snaps house-book clasp, 

Posts off to vespers, missal ^ beneath arm. 

Passes the proper San Lorenzo by, 

Dives down a little lane to the left, is lost 

In a labyrinth of dwellings best unnamed, 150 

Selects a certain blind one, black at base, 

Blinking at top, — the sign of we know what, — 

One candle in a casement set to wink 

Streetward, do service to no shrine inside, — 

Mounts thither by the filthy flight of stairs, 155 

Holding the cord by the wall, to the tip-top, 

Gropes for the door i' the dark, ajar of course, 

Raps, opens, enters in : up starts a thing 

Naked as needs be — " What, you rogue, 't is you ? 

Back, — how can I have taken a farthing yet? 160 

Mercy on me, poor sinner that I am! 

' Missal : book of the mass, Roman Catholic prayer-book. 



112 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Here 's . . . why, I took you for Madonna's self 

With all that sudden swirl of silk i' the place! 

What may your pleasure be, my bonny dame?" 

Your Excellency supplies aught left obscure? 165 

One of those women that abound in Rome, 

Whose needs oblige them eke out one poor trade 

By another vile one : her ostensible work 

Was washing clothes, out in the open air 

At the cistern by Citorio ; her true trade — 1 70 

Whispering to idlers, when they stopped and praised 

The ankles she let liberally shine 

In kneeling at the slab by the fountain-side, 

That there was plenty more to criticise 

At home, that eve, i' the house where candle blinked 175 

Decorously above, and all was done 

r the holy fear of God and cheap beside. 

Violante, now, had seen this woman wash. 

Noticed and envied her propitious shape, 

Tracked her home to her house-top, noted too, 180 

And now was come to tempt her and propose 

A bargain far more shameful than the first 

Which trafficked her virginity away 

For a melon and three pauls ^ at twelve years old. 

Five minutes' talk with this poor child of Eve, 185 

Struck was the bargain, business at an end — 

" Then, six months hence, that person whom you trust, 

Comes, fetches whatsoever babe it be ; 

I keep the price and secret, you the babe. 

Paying beside for mass to make all straight : 190 

Meantime, I pouch the earnest-money-piece.'" 

Down stairs again goes fumbling by the rope 

Violante, triumphing in a flourish of fire 

From her own brain, self-lit by such success, — 

Gains church in time for the ^^MagJiificaV 195 

And gives forth '' My reproof is taken away, 

And blessed shall mankind proclaim me now," 

So that the officiating priest turns round 

To see who proffers the obstreperous praise : 

Then home to Pietro, the enraptured-much 20c 

But puzzled-more when told the wondrous news — 

How orisons and works of charity, 

(Beside that pair of pinners- and a coif,^ 

Birth-day surprise last Wednesday was fi\e weeks) 

Had borne fruit in the autumn of his life. — 205 

^ Pauls : Italian silver coins worth about ■ Pinners : lappets of a head-dress, 

ten cents each. •* Coif: a cap. 



TERTIUM QUID. 113 

They, or the Orvieto^ in a double dose. 

Anyhow, she must keep house next six months, 

Lie on the settle, avoid the three-legged stool. 

And, chiefly, not be crossed in wish or whim, 

And the result was like to be an heir. 210 

Accordingly, when time was come about, 

He found himself the sire indeed of this 

Francesca Vittoria Pompilia and the rest 

O' the names whereby he sealed her his, next day. 

A crime complete in its way is here, I hope? 215 

Lies to God. lies to man, every way lies 

To nature and civility and the mode : 

Flat robbery of the proper heirs thus foiled 

O' the due succession, — and, what followed thence, 

Robbery of God, through the confessor's ear 220 

Debarred the most note-worthy incident 

When all else done and undone twelve-month through 

Was put in evidence at Easter-time. 

All other peccadillos! — but this one 

To the priest who comes next day to dine with us? 225 

'T were inexpedient ; decency forbade. 

Is so far clear? You know Violante now. 

Compute her capability of crime 

By this authentic instance? Black hard cold 

Crime like a stone you kick up with your foot 230 

r the middle of a field? 

1 thought as much, 
But now, a question, — how long does it lie. 
The bad and barren bit of stuff you kick, 
Before encroached on and encompassed round 
With minute moss, weed, wild-flower — made alive 235 

By worm, and fly, and foot of the free bird ? 
Your Highness, — healthy minds let bygones be, 
Leave old crimes to grow young and virtuous-like 
r the sun and air ; so time treats ugly deeds : 
They take the natural blessing of all change. 240 

There was the joy o' the husband silly-sooth. 
The softening of the wife's old wicked heart. 
Virtues to right and left, profusely paid 
If so they might compensate the saved sin. 
And then the sudden existence, dewy-dear, 245 

O' the rose above the dungheap, the pure child 
As good as new created, since withdrawn 

'}■ Orvieto : probably a medicine of Fenante, a celebrated charlatan who lived in Orvieto. 
I 



114 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

From the horror of the pre-appointed lot 
With the unknown father and the mother known 
Too well, — some fourteen years of squalid youth, 250 

And then libertinage, disease, the grave — 
Hell in life here, hereafter life in hell : 
Look at that horror and this soft repose! 
Why, moralist, the sin has saved a soul! 

Then, even the palpable grievance to the heirs — 255 

'Faith, this was no frank setting hand to throat 
pQ-»nptl ^ '^ And robbing a man, but . . . Excellency, by your leave, 

How did you get that marvel of a gem. 
The sapphire with the Graces grand and Greek ? 
The story is, stooping to pick a stone 260 

From the pathway through a vineyard — no-man's-land — 
To pelt a sparrow with, you chanced on this : 
Why now, do those five clowns o' the family 
O' the vinedresser digest their porridge worse 
That not one keeps it in his goatskin pouch 265 

To do flint's service with the tinder-box? 
Don't cheat me, don't cheat you, don't cheat a friend, 
• But are you so hard on who jostles just 
A stranger with no natural sort of claim 

To the havings and the holdings (here 's the point) 270 

Unless by misadventure, and defect 
Of that which ought to be — nay, which there 's none 
Would dare so much as wish to profit by — 
Since who dares put in just so many words 
"May Pietro fail to have a child, please God! 275 

So shall his house and goods belong to me. 
The sooner that his heart will pine betimes"? 
Well then, God doesn't please, nor heart shall pine! 
Because he has a child at last, you see, 

Or selfsame thing as though a child it were, 280 

He thinks, whose sole concern it is to think : 
If he accepts it why should you demur? 

Moreover, say that certain sin there seem. 

The proper process of unsinning sin 

Is to begin well-doing somehow else. 285 

Pietro, — remember, with no sin at all 

I' the substitution, — why, this gift of God 

Flung in his lap from over Paradise 

Steadied him a moment, set him straight 

On the good path he had been straying from. 290 

Henceforward no more wilfulness and waste, 

Cuppings, carousings, — these a sponge wiped out. 

AH sort of self-denial was easy now 

For the child's sake, the chatelaine to be. 



TERTIUM (lUID. 115 

Who must want much and might want who knows what? 295 

And so, the debts were paid, habits reformed, 

Expense curtailed, the dowry set to grow. 

As for the wife, — I said, hers the whole sin ; 

So, hers the exemplary penance. 'T was a text 

Whereon folk preached and praised, the district through : 300 

"Oh, make us happy and you make us good! 

It all comes of God giving her a child : 

Such graces follow God's best earthly gift! " 

Here you put by my guard, pass to my heart 
By the home-thrust — "There 's a lie at base of all 305 

Why, thou exact Prince, is it a pearl or no, 
Yon globe upon the Principessa's neck? 
That great round glory of pellucid stuff, 
A fish secreted round a grain of grit! 

Do you call it worthless for the worthless core? 310 

(She doesn't, who well knows what she changed for it.) 
So, to our brace of burgesses again! 
You see so far i' the story, who was right, 
Who wrong, who neither, don't you? What, you don't? 
Eh-? Well, admit there "s somewhat dark i' the case, 315 

Let 's on — the rest shall clear, I promise you. 
Leap over a dozen years : you find, these past. 
An old good easy creditable sire, 
A careful housewife's beaming bustling face. 
Both wrapped up in the love of their one child, 320 

" The strange tall pale beautiful creature grown 
Lily-like out o' the cleft i' the sun-smit rock 
To bow its white miraculous birth of buds 
r the way of wandering Joseph and his spouse, — 
So painters fancy : here it was a fact. 325 

And this their lily, — could they but transplant 
And set in vase to stand by Solomon's porch 
'Twixt lion and lion! — this Pompilia of theirs, 
Could they see worthily married, well bestowed, 
In house and home! And why despair of this 330 

With Rome to choose from, save the topmost rank? 
Themselves would help the choice with heart and soul, 
Throw their late savings in a common heap 
To go with the dowry, and be followed in time 
By the heritage legitimately hers : 335 

And when such paragon was found and fixed. 
Why, they might chant their '■'■Nunc dimittis^'''^ straight. 

Indeed the prize was simply full to a fault, ' 

* Nunc dimittis : " Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace," etc., Luke ii. 22. 



\ 



\ 



ii6 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Exorbitant for the suitor they should seek. 

And social class should choose among, these cits.^ 340 

Yet there 's a latitude : exceptional white 

Amid the general brown o' the species, lurks 

A burgess nearly an aristocrat, 

Legitimately in reach : look out for him! 

What banker, merchant, has seen better days, 345 

What second-rate painter a-pushing up. 

Poet a-slipping down, shall bid the best 

For this young beauty with the thumping purse? 

Alack, were it but one of such as these 

So like the real thing that they pass for it, 350 

All had gone well ! Unluckily, poor souls, 

It proved to be the impossible thing itself. 

Truth and not sham : hence ruin to them all. 

For, Guido Franceschini was the head 

Of an old family in Arezzo, old 355 

To that degree they could afford be poor 

Better than most : the case is common too. 

Out of the vast door 'scutcheoned overhead, 

Creeps out a serving-man on Saturdays 

To cater for the week, — turns up anon 360 

r the market, chaifering for the lamb's least leg, 

Or the quarter-fowl, less entrails, claws and comb 

Then back again with prize, — a liver begged 

Into the bargain, gizzard overlooked. 

He 's mincing these to give the beans a taste, 365 

When, at your knock, he leaves the simmering soup. 

Waits on the curious stranger-visitant. 

Napkin in half-wiped hand, to show the rooms. 

Point pictures out have hung their hundred years, 

"Priceless," he tells you, — puts in his place at once 370 

The man of money : yes, you 're banker-king 

Or merchant-kaiser, wallow in your wealth 

While patron, the house-master, can't afford 

To stop our ceiling-hole that rain so rots : 

But he 's the man of mark, and there 's his shield, 375 

And yonder 's the famed Rafael, first in kind. 

The painter painted for his grandfather. 

And you have paid to see : "Good morning, Sir! " 

Such is the law of compensation. Still 

The poverty was getting nigh acute ; 380 

There gaped so many noble mouths to feed. 

Beans must suffice unflavored of the fowl. 

The mother, — hers would be a spun-out life 

' Cits : abbreviation of citizens. 



TERTIUM QUID. 117 

V the nature of things ; the sisters had done well 

And married men of reasonable rank : 385 

But that sort of illumination stops. 

Throws back no heat upon the parent-hearth. 

The family instinct felt out for its fire 

To the Church, — the Church traditionally helps 

A second son : and such was Paolo, 390 

Established here at Rome these thirty years, 

Who played the regular game, — priest and Abate, 

jMade friends, owned house and land, became of use 

To a personage : his course lay clear enough. 

The youngest caught the sympathetic flame, 395 

And,- though unfledged wings kept him still i' the cage, 

Yet he shot up to be a Canon, so 

Clung to the higher perch and crowed in hope. 

Even our Guido, eldest brother, went 

As far i' the way o' the Church as safety seemed, 400 

He being Head o' the House, ordained to wive, — 

So, could but dally with an Order or two 

And testify good-will i' the cause : he clipped 

His top-hair and thus far affected Christ. 

But main promotion must fall otherwise, 405 

Though still from the side o' the Church : and here was he 

At Rome, since first youth, worn threadbare of soul 

By forty-six years' rubbing on hard life. 

Getting fast tired o' the game whose word is — "Wait! 

When one day, — he too having his Cardinal 410 

To serve in some ambiguous sort, as serve 

To draw the coach the plumes o' the horses' heads, — 

The Cardinal saw fit to dispense with him, 

Ride with one plume the less ; and ofifit dropped. 

Guido thus left, — with a youth spent in vain 415 

And not a penny in purse to show for it, — 

Advised with Paolo, bent no doubt in chafe 

The black brows somewhat formidably, growled 

"Where is the good I came to get at Rome? 

Where the repayment of the servitude 420 

To a purple popinjay, whose feet I kiss. 

Knowing his father wiped the shoes of mine?" 

" Patience," pats Paolo the recalcitrant — 

" You have not had, so far, the proper luck. 

Nor do my gains suffice to keep us both : 425 

». modest competency is mine, not more. 

You are the Count however, yours the style. 

Heirdom and state, — you can't expect all good. 

Had I, now, held your hand of cards . . . well, well — 

What 's yet unplayed, I '11 look at, by your leave, 430 



Ii8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Over your shoulder. — I who made my game, 

Let "s see, if I can"t help to handle yours. 

Fie on you. all the Honors in your fist. 

Countship. Househeadship, — how have you misdealt! 

Why. in the first place, these will marry a man! 435 

Not j( III tonsoribus .' ^ To the Tonsor - then ! 

Come, clear your looks, and choose your freshest suit, 

And, after function 's done with, down we go ' 

To the woman-dealer in perukes, a wench 

I and some others settled in the shop 440 

At Place Colonna : she 's an oracle. Hmm! 

' Dear, "t is my brother : brother, 't is my dear. 

Dear, give us counsel ! Whom do you suggest 

As properest party in the quarter round 

For the Count here? — he is minded to take wife, 445 

And further tells me he intends to slip 

Twenty zecchines'^ under the bottom-scalp 

Of his old wig when he sends it to revive 

For the wedding : and I add a trifle too. 

You know what personage I 'm potent with.' " 450 

And so plumped out Pompilia's name the first. 

She told them of the household and its ways. 

The easv husband and the shrewder wife 

In Via Vittoria, — how the tall young girl. 

With hair black as yon patch and eyes as big 455 

As yon pomander'' to make freckles fly. 

Would have so much for certain, and so much more 

In likelihood, — why, it suited, slipped as smooth 

As the Pope's pantoufle^ does on the Pope's foot. 

" I '11 to the husband! " Guido ups and cries. 460 

'•Ay, so you'd play your last court-card, no doubt!" 

Puts Paolo in with a groan — " Only, you see. 

'T is I, this time, that supervise your lead. 

Priests play with women, maids, wives, mothers — why? 

These play with men and take them off our hands. 465 

Did I come, counsel with some cut-beard gruft' 

Or rather this sleek young-old barberess? 

Go, brother, stand you rapt in the ante-room 

Of Her Efficacity ** my Cardinal 

For an hour, — he likes to have lord-suitors lounge,— 470 

While I betake myself to the gray mare. 

The better horse, — how wise the people's word! — 

' Notum tonsoribiis : " known to the bar- •* Pomander : a ball of pomade for the 

bers." See note, 11. 114. skin. 

2 Tonsor : barber. '' Pantonfle : slipper. 

' Zecchi'ies : sequins, coins worth about " Her Efficacity : similar idiom to that 

$2.25 each. referred to in line 55. 



TERTIUM QUID. 119 

And wait on Madam Violante." 

Said and done. 
He was at Via Vittoria in three skips : 

Proposed at once to fill up the one want 475 

O'' the burgess-family which, wealthy enough, 
And comfortable to heart's desire, yet crouched 
Outside a gate to heaven, — locked, bolted, barred, 
Whereof Count Guido had a key he kept 

Under his pillow, but Pompilia's hand 480 

Might slide behind his neck and pilfer thence. 
The key was fairy ; its mere mention made 
Violante feel the thing shoot one sharp ray 
That reached the womanly heart : so — "I assent! 
Yours be Pompilia, hers and ours that key 485 

To all the glories of the greater life! 
There 's Pietro to convince : leave that to me ! " 

Then was the matter broached to Pietro ; then 

Did Pietro make demand and get response 

That in the Countship was a truth, but in 490 

The counting up of the Count's cash, a lie. 

He thereupon stroked grave his chin, looked great, 

Declined the honor. Then the wife wiped tear, 

Winked with the other eye turned Paolo-ward, 

Whispered Pompilia, stole to church at eve, 495 

Found Guido there and got the marriage done. 

And finally begged pardon at the feet 

Of her dear lord and master. Whereupon 

Quoth Pietro — " Let us make the best of things! " 

" I knew your love would license us," quoth she : 500 

Quoth Paolo once more, " Mothers, wives and maids. 

These be the tools wherewith priests manage men." 

Now, here take breath and ask, — which bird o' the brace 

Decoyed the other into clapnet? Who * 

Was fool, who knave? Neither and both, perchance. 505 

There was a bargain mentally proposed 

On each side, straight and plain and fair enough ; 

Mind knew its own mind : but when mind must speak, 

The bargain have expression in plain terms. 

There came the blunder incident to words, 510 

And in the clumsy process, fair turned foul. 

The straight backbone-thought of the crooked speech 

Were just — "I Guido truck my name and rank 

For so much money and youth and female charms. — 

We Pietro and Violante give our child 515 

And wealth to you for a rise i' the world thereby." 

Such naked truth while chambered in the brain 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Shocks nowise : walk it forth by way of tongue, — 

Out on the cynical unseemliness! 

Hence was the need, on either side, of a lie 520 

To serve as decent wrappage : so, Guido gives 

Money for money, — and they, bride for groom, 

Having, he, not a doit, they, not a child 

Honestly theirs, but this poor waif and stray. 

According to the words, each cheated each ; 525 

But in the inexpressive barter of thoughts. 

Each did give and did take the thing designed, 

The rank on this side and the cash on that — • 

Attained the object of the traffic, so. 

The way of the world, the daily bargain struck 530 

In the first market! Why sells Jack his ware."* 

" For the sake of serving an old customer." 

Why does Jill buy it? " Simply not to break 

A custom, pass the old stall the first time." 

Why, you know where the gist is of the exchange : 535 

Each sees a profit, throws the fine words in. 

Don't be too hard o' the pair! Had each pretence 

Been simultaneously discovered, stript 

From off the body o' the transaction, just 

As when a cook (will Excellency forgive?) 540 

Strips away those long rough superfluous legs 

From either side the crayfish, leaving folk 

A meal all meat henceforth, no garnishry, 

(With your respect. Prince!) — balance had been kept, 

No party blamed the other, — so, starting fair, 545 

All subsequent fence of wrong returned by wrong 

r the matrimonial thrust and parry, at least 

Had followed on equal terms. But, as it chanced, 

One party had the advantage, saw the cheat 

Of the other first and kept its own concealed : 550 

And the luck o' the first discovery fell, beside. 

To the least adroit and self-possessed o' the pair. 

'T was foolish Pietro and his wife saw first 

The nobleman was penniless, and screamed 

'' We are cheated! " 

Such unprofitable noise 555 

Angers at all times : but when those who plague, 
Do it from inside your own house and home. 
Gnats which yourself have closed the curtain round. 
Noise goes too near the brain and makes you mad. 
The gnats say, Guido used the candle-flame 560 

Unfairly, — worsened that first bad of his, 
By practising all kinds of cruelty 
To oust them and suppress the wail and whine, 



TERTIUM QUrO. 123 

That speedily he so scared and bulHed them, 

Fain were they, long before five months had passed. 

To beg him grant, from what was once their wealth, 

Just so much as would help them back to Rome 

Where, when they finished paying the last doit 660 

O' the dowry, they might beg from door to door. 

So say the Comparini — as if it came 570 

Of pure resentment for this worse than bad, 

That then Violante, feeling conscience prick, ' 

Confessed her substitution of the child 

Whence all the harm came, — and that Pietro first 

Bethought him of advantage to himself 575 

r the deed, as part revenge, part remedy 

For all miscalculation in the pact. 

On the other hand " Not so! " Guido retorts — 

" I am the wronged, solely, from first to last. 

Who gave the dignity I engaged to give, 580 

Which was, is, cannot but continue gain. 

My being poor was a bye-circumstance. 

Miscalculated piece of untowardness. 

Might end to-morrow did heaven's windows ope, 

Or uncle die and leave me his estate. 585 

You should have put up with the minor flaw. 

Getting the main prize of the jewel. If wealth, . 

Not rank, had been prime object in your thoughts. 

Why not have taken the butcher's son, the boy 

O' the baker or candlestick-maker? In all the rest, 590 

It was yourselves broke compact and played false. 

And made a life in common impossible. 

Show me the stipulation of our bond 

That you should make your profit of being inside 

My house, to hustle and edge me out o' the same, 595 

First make a laughing-stock of mine and me. 

Then round us in the ears from morn to night 

(Because we show wry faces at your mirth) 

That you are robbed, starved, beaten and what not! 

You fled a hell of your own ligh ting-up, 600 

Pay for your own miscalculation too : 

You thought nobility, gained at any price. 

Would suit and satisf)-, — find the mistake, 

And now retaliate, not on yourselves, but me. 

And how? By tellihg me, i' the face of the world, 605 

I it is have been cheated all this while. 

Abominably and irreparablv, — my name 

Given to a cur-cast mongrel, a drab's brat, 

A beggar's bye-blow, — thus depriving me 

Of what yourselves allege the whole and sole 610 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

S\im on my part i' the marriage, — money to-wit. 

Crhis thrust I have to parry by a guard 

'Which leaves me open to a counter-thrust 
On the other side, — no way but there 's a pass 
Clean through me. If I prove, as I hope to do, 615 

There 's not one truth in this your odious tale 
O' the buying, selling, substituting — prove 
Your daughter was and is your daughter. — well, 
And her dowry hers and therefore mine, — what then? 
Why, where 's the appropriate punishment for this 620 

Enormous lie hatched for mere malice' sake 
To ruin me? Is that a wrong or no? 
And if I try revenge for remedy. 
Can I well make it strong and bitter enough ? " 

I anticipate however — only ask, 625 

Which of the two here sinned most? A nice point! 
Which brownness is least black, — decide who can, 
Wager-by-battle-of-ch eating! What do you say, 
Highness? Suppose, your Excellency, we leave 
The question at this stage, proceed to the next, 630 

Both parties step out, fight their prize upon, 
In the eye o' the world? 

They brandish law 'gainst law ; 
The grinding of such blades, each parry of each. 
Throws terrible sparks off, over and above the thrusts, 
And makes more sinister the fight, to the eye. 635 

Than the very wounds that follow. Beside the tale 
Which the Comparini have to re-assert. 
They needs must write, print, publish all abroad 
The straitnesses of Guido's household life — 
The petty nothings we bear privately 640 

But break down under when fools tlock to jeer. 
What is it all to the facts o' the couple's case, 
How helps it prove Pompilia not their child, 
If Guido's mother, brother, kith and kin 

Fare ill, lie hard, lack clothes, lack fire, lack food ? 645 

That 's one more wrong than needs. 

On the other hand, 
Guido, — whose cue is to dispute the truth 
O' the tale, reject the shame it throws on him, — 
He may retaliate, fight his foe in turn 

And welcome, we allow. Ay, but he can't ! 650 

He's at home, only acts by proxy here : 
Law may meet law, — but all the gibes and jeers, 
The superfluity of naughtiness. 
Those libels on his House, — how reach at them? 
Two hateful faces, grinning all a-glow, 655 



TERTIUM QUID. 123 

Not only make parade of spoil they filched. 

But foul him from the height of a tower, you see. 

Unluckily temptation is at hand — 

To take revenge on a trifle overlooked, 

A pet lamb they have left in reach outside, 660 

Whose first bleat, when he plucks the wool away, 

Will strike the grinners grave : his wife remains 

Who, four months earlier, some thirteen years old, 

Never a mile away from mother's house 

And petted to the height of her desire, 665 

Was told one morning that her fate had come. 

She must be married — just as, a month before. 

Her mother told her she must comb her hair 

And twist her curls into one knot behind. 

These fools forgot their pet lamb, fed with flowers, 670 

Then 'ticed as usual by the bit of cake. 

Out of the bower into the butchery. 

Plague her, he plagues them threefold: but how plague? 

The world may have its word to say to that : 

You can't do some things with impunity. 675 

What remains . . . well, it is an ugly thought . . . 

But that he drive herself to plague herself — 

Herself disgrace herself and so disgrace 

Who seek to disgrace Guido? 

There 's the clue 
To what else seems gratuitously vile, 680 

If, as is said, from this time forth the rack 
Was tried upon Pompilia : 't was to wrench 
Her limbs into e.xposure that brings shame. 
The aim o' the cruelty being so crueller still. 
That cruelty almost grows compassion's self 685 

Could one attribute it to mere return 
O' the parents' outrage, wrong avenging wrong. 
They see in this a deeper deadlier aim, 
Not to vex just a body they held dear. 

But blacken too a soul they boasted white, 690 

And show the world their saint in a lover's arms, 
No matter how driven thither, — so they say. 

On the other hand, so much is easily said. 

And Guido lacks not an apologist. 

The pair had nobody but themselves to blame, 695 

Being selfish beasts throughout, no less, no more : 

— Cared for themselves, their supposed good, nought else, 

And brought about the marriage ; good proved bad. 

As little they cared for her its victim — nay. 

Meant she should stay behind and take the chance, 700 



124 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

If haply they might wriggle themselves free. 

They baited their own hook to catch a fish 

With this poor worm, failed o' the prize, and then 

Sought how to unbait tackle, let worm float 

Or sink, amuse the monster while they 'scaped. 705 

Under the best stars Hymen brings above, 

Had all been honesty on either side, 

A common sincere effort to good end. 

Still, this would prove a difficult problem. Prince! 

— Given, a fair wife, aged thirteen years. 710 
A husband poor, care-bitten, sorrow-sunk. 

Little, long-nosed, bush-bearded, lantern-jawed, 

Forty-six years old, — place the two grown one, 

She, cut off sheer from every natural aid, 

In a strange town with no familiar face — 715 

He, in his own parade-ground or retreat 

If need were, free from challenge, much less check 

To an irritated, disappointed will — 

How evolve happiness from such a match? 

T were hard to serve up a congenial dish 720 

Out of these ill-agreeing morsels, Duke, 

By the best exercise of the cook's craft. 

Best interspersion of spice, salt and sweet! 

But let two ghastly scullions concoct mess 

With brimstone, pitch, vitriol and devil's-dung 1 — 725 

Throw in abuse o' the man, his body and soul, 

Kith, kin and generation shake all slab 

At Rome, Arezzo, for the world to nose. 

Then end by publishing, for fiend's arch-prank, 

That, over and above sauce to the meafs self, 730 

Why, even the meat, bedevilled thus in dish. 

Was never a pheasant but a carrion-crow — 

Prince, what will then the natural loathing be? 

What wonder if this ? — the compound plague o' the pair 

Pricked Guido. — not to take the course they hoped, 735 

That is. submit him to their statement's truth. 

Accept its obvious promise of relief, 

And thrust them out of doors the girl again 

Since the girl's dowrv would not enter there, 

— Quit of the one if baulked of the other : no! 740 
Rather did rage and hate so work in him. 

Their product pro\ed the horrible conceit 

That he should plot and plan and bring to pass 

His wife might, of her own free will and deed. 

Relieve him of her presence, get her gone, 745 

And yet leave all the dowry safe behind. 

' Devil' s-duns : assafoetida, a vile smelling drug. 



TERTIUM QUID. 125 

Confirmed his own henceforward past dispute, 
While blotting out, as by a belch of hell, 
Their triumph in her misery and death. 

You see, the man was Aretine, had touch 750 

O' the subtle air that breeds the subtle wit ; 

Was noble too, of old blood thrice-refined 

That shrinks from clownish coarseness in disgust: 

Allow that such an one may take revenge, 

You don't expect he '11 catch up stone and fling, 755 

Or try cross-buttock, ^ or whirl quarter-staff? ^ 

Instead of the honest drubbing clowns bestow, 

When out of temper at the dinner spoilt. 

On meddling mother-in-law and tiresome wife, — 

Substitute for the clown a nobleman, 760 

And you have Guido, practising, 't is said, 

Immitigably from the very first. 

The finer vengeance : this, they say, the fact 

O' the famous letter shows — the writing traced 

At Guido's instance by the timid wife 765 

Over the pencilled words himself writ first — 

Wherein she, who could neither write nor read, 

Was made unblushingly declare a tale 

To the brother, the Abate then in Rome, 

How her putative parents had impressed, 770 

On their departure, their enjoinment; bade 

" We being safely arrived here, follow, you! 

Poison your husband, rob, set fire to all. 

And then by means o' the gallant you procure 

With ease, by helpful eye and ready tongue, 775 

Some brave youth ready to dare, do and die. 

You shall run off and merrily reach Rome 

Where we may live like flies in honey-pot : " — 

Such being exact the programme of the course 

Imputed her as carried to effect. 780 

They also say, — to keep her straight therein, 

All sort of torture was piled, pain on pain. 

On either side Pompilia's path of life. 

Built round about and over against by fear, 

Circumvallated month by month, and week 785 

By week, and day by day, and hour by hour. 

Close, closer and yet closer still with pain. 

No outlet from the encroaching pain save just 

Where stood one saviour like a piece of heaven, 

' Cross-buttock : a blow across the back. ^ Quarter-stajf : a long, stout staff 



126 THE RTNG AND THE BOOK. 

Hell's arms would strain round but for this blue gap. 790 

She, they say further, first tried every chink, 

Every imaginable break i' the fire, 

As way of escape : ran to the Commissary, 

Who bade her not malign his friend her spouse ; 

Flung herself thrice at the Archbishop's feet, 795 

Where three times the Archbishop let her lie, 

Spend her whole sorrow and sob full heart forth, 

And then took up the slight load from the ground 

And bore it back for husband to chastise, — 

Mildly of course, — but natural right is right. 800 

So went she slipping ever yet catching at help, 

Missing the high till come to lowest and last, 

To-wit a certain friar of mean degree. 

Who heard her story in confession, wept. 

Crossed himself, showed the man within the monk. 805 

"Then, will you save me, you the one i' the world? 

I cannot even write my woes, nor put 

My prayer for help in words a friend may read, — 

I no more own a coin than have an hour 

Free of observance, — I was watched to church, 810 

Am watched now, shall be watched back presently, — 

How buy the skill of scribe i' the market-place? 

Pray you, write down and send whatever I say 

O' the need I have my parents take me hence!" 

The good man rubbed his eyes and could not choose — 815 

Let her dictate her letter in such a sense 

That parents, to save breaking down a wall. 

Might lift her over: she went back, heaven in heart. 

Then the good man took counsel of his couch, 

Woke and thought twice, the second thought the best : 820 

" Here am I, foolish body that I be. 

Caught all but pushing, teaching, who but I, 

My betters their plain duty, — what, I dare 

Help a case the Archbishop would not help. 

Mend matters, peradventure, God loves mar? 825 

What hath the married life but strifes and plagues 

For proper dispensation ? So a fool 

Once touched the ark, — poor Uzzah ^ that I am! 

Oh married ones, much rather should I bid. 

In patience all of ye possess your souls! 830 

This life is brief and troubles die with it : 

Where were the prick to soar up homeward else?" 

So saying, he burnt tlie letter he had writ. 

Said Ave for her intention, in its place, 

' Uzzah : 2 Samuel, vi. 6, 7; i Chronicles xiii. 10 (Hophni was wrongly put for Uzzah 
in earlier editions) . 



TERTIUM QUID. ii-j 

Took snuff .md comfort, and had done with all. 835 

Then the grim arms stretched yet a little more 

And each touched each, all but one streak i' the midst, 

Whereat stood Caponsacchi, who cried, " This way, 

Out by ine! Hesitate one moment more 

And the lire shuts out me and shuts in you! 840 

Here my hand holds you life out! '" Whereupon 

She clasped the hand, which closed on hers and drew 

Pompilia out o' the circle now complete. 

Whose fault or shame but Guido's? — ask her friends. 



But then this is the wife's — Pompilia's tale — 845 

Eve's . . . no, not Eve's, since Eve, to speak the truth, 

Was hardly fallen (our candor might pronounce) 

When simply saying in her own defence 

"The serpent tempted me and I did eat." 

So much of paradisal nature. Eve's! 850 

Her daughters ever since prefer to urge 

"Adam so starved me I was fain accept 

The apple any serpent pushed my way." 

What an elaborate theory have we here. 

Ingeniously nursed up, pretentiously 855 

Brought forth, pushed forward amid trumpet-blast, 

To account for the thawing of an icicle. 

Show us there needed .'Etna vomit flame 

Ere run the crystal into dew-drops! Else, 

How, unless hell broke loose to cause the step, 860 

How could a married lady go astray? 

Bless the fools! And 'tis just this way they are blessed, 

And the world wags still, — because fools are sure 

— Oh, not of my wife nor your daughter! No! 

But of their own : the case is altered quite. 865 

Look now, — last week, the lady we all love, — 

Daughter o' the couple we all venerate. 

Wife of the husband we all cap before. 

Mother o' the babes we all breathe blessings on, — 

Was caught in converse with a negro page. 870 

Hell thawed that icicle, else "Why was it — 

Why?" asked and echoed the fools. "Because, you fools, — " 

So did the dame's self answer, she who could. 

With that fine candor only forthcoming 

When 't is no odds whether withheld or no — 875 

" Because my husband was the saint you say, 

And. — with that childish goodness, absurd faith,. 

Stupid self-satisfaction, you so praise, — 

Saint to you, insupportable to me. 

Had he, — instead of calling me fine names, 880 



128 ■ THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Lucretia ^ and Susanna ^ and so forth, 

And curtaining Correggio carefully 

Lest I be taught that Leda ^ had two legs, — 

— But once never so little tweaked my nose 

For peeping through my fan at Carnival, 885 

Confessing thereby ' I have no easy task — 

I need use all my powers to hold you mine, 

And then, — why 'tis so doubtful if they serve, 

That — take this, as an earnest of despairl' 

Why, we were quits : I had wiped the harm away, 890 

Thought ' The man fears me! ' and foregone revenge." 

We must not want all this elaborate work 

To solve the problem why young Fancy-and-flesh 

Slips from the dull side of a spouse in years, 

Betakes it to the breast of Brisk-and-bold 895 

Whose love-scrapes furnish talk for all the town! 

Accordingly one word on the other side 

Tips over the piled-up fabric of a tale. 

Guido says — that is, always, his friends say — 

It is unlikely from the wickedness, 900 

That any man treat any woman so. 

The letter in question was her very own. 

Unprompted and unaided : she could write — 

As able to write as ready to sin, or free. 

When there was danger, to deny both facts. 905 

He bids you mark, herself from first to last 

Attributes all the so-styled torture just 

To jealousy, — jealousy of whom but just 

This very Caponsacchi! How suits here 

This with the other alleged motive, Prince? 910 

Would Guido make a terror of the man 

He meant should tempt the woman, as they charge? 

Do you fright your hare that you may catch your hare? 

Consider too, the charge was made and met 

At the proper time and place where proofs were plain — 915 

Heard patiently and disposed of thoroughly 

By the highest powers, possessors of most light, 

The Governor for the law, and the Archbishop 

For the gospel : which acknowledged primacies, 

'Tis impudently pleaded, he could warp 920 

Into a tacit partnership with crime — 

He being the while, believe their own account, 

' Lucretia : wife of CoUatinus, whose " Sttsantta : wife of Joacim, wrongly ac- 
praise of her above the wives of Tarquin and cused and condemned to death, but proved 
others was proved by finding her spinning at innocent by Daniel, and her accusers shown 
home, while the other wives were found danc- to be the guilty ones. See Apocrypha. 
ing and revelling. ' Leda : Correggio's picture of Leda and 

the Swan, now in the Berlin Museum. 



TERTIUM QUID. 129 

Impotent, penniless and miserable! 

He further asks — Duke, note the knotty point! — 

How he, — concede him skill to play such part 925 

And drive his wife into a gallant's arms, — 

Could bring the gallant to play his part too 

And stand with arms so opportunely wide? 

How bring this Caponsacchi, — with whom, friends 

And foes alike agree, throughout his life 930 

He never interchanged a civil word 

Nor lifted courteous cap to — him how bend 

To such observancy of beck and call, 

— To undertake this strange and perilous feat 

For the good of Guido, using, as the lure, 935 

Pompilia whom, himself and she avouch. 

He had nor spoken with nor seen, indeed, 

Bevond sight in a public theatre, 

Wiien she wrote letters (she that could not write!) 

The importunate shamelessly-protested love 940 

Which brought him, though reluctant, to her feet, 

And forced on him the plunge which, howsoe'er 

She might swim up i' the whirl, must bury him 

Under abysmal black : a priest contrive 

No better, no amour to be hushed up, 945 

But open flight and noon-day infamy? 

Try and concoct defence for such revolt! 

Take the wife's tale as true, say she was wronged, — 

Pray, in what rubric of breviary 

Do you find it registered — the part of a priest 950 

Is — that to right wrongs from the church he skip. 

Go journeying with a woman that 's a wife, 

And be pursued, overtaken and captured . . . how? 

In a lay-dress, playing the kind sentinel 

Where the wife sleeps (says he who best should know) 955 

And sleeping, sleepless, both have spent the night! 

Could no one else be found to serve at need — 

No woman — or if man, no safer sort 

Than this not well-reputed turbulence? 

Then, look into his own account o' the case! 960 

He, being the stranger and astonished one, 

Yet received protestations of her love 

From lady neither known nor cared about : 

Love, so protested, bred in him disgust 

After the wonder, — or incredulity, 965 

Such impudence seeming impossible. 

But, soon assured such impudence might be, 

When he had seen with his own eyes at last 

Letters thrown down to him i' the very street 

From behind lattice where the lady lurked, 970 



I30 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And read their passionate summons to her side — 

Why then, a thousand thoughts swarmed up and in, — 

How he had seen her once, a moment's space. 

Observed she was both young and beautiful, 

Heard everywhere report she suiilered much 975 

From a jealous husband thrice her age, — in short 

There flashed the propriety, expediency 

Of treating, trying might they come to terms, 

— At all events, granting the interview 

Prayed for, one so adapted to assist 980 

Decision as to whether he advance, 

Stand or retire, in his benevolent mood! 

Therefore the interview befell at length ; 

And at this one and only interview. 

He saw the sole and single course to take — 985 

Bade her dispose of him, head, heart and hand, 

Did her behest and braved the consequence. 

Not for the natural end, the love of man 

For woman whether love be virtue or vice. 

But, please you, altogether for pity's sake — 990 

Pity of innocence and helplessness! 

And how did he assure himself of both? 

Had he been the house-inmate, visitor. 

Eye-witness of the described martyrdom, 

So, competent to pronounce its remedy 995 

Ere rush on such extreme and desperate course — 

Involving such enormity of harm. 

Moreover, to the husband judged thus, doomed 

And damned without a word in his defence? 

Not he! the truth was felt by instinct here, looo 

— Process which saves a world of trouble and time. 
There 's the priest's story : what do you say to it. 
Trying its truth by your own instinct too. 

Since that's to be the expeditious mode? 

" And now, do hear my version," Guido cries : 1005 

" I accept argument and inference both. 

It would indeed have been miraculous 

Had such a confidency sprung to birth 

With no more fanning from acquaintanceship 

Than here avowed by my wife and this priest. loio 

Only, it did not : you must substitute 

The old stale unromantic way of fault, 

The commonplace adventure, mere intrigue 

In prose form with the unpoetic tricks, 

Cheatings and lies : they used the hackney chair 1015 

Satan jaunts forth with, shabby and serviceable, 

No gilded gimcrack-novelty from below. 

To bowl you along thither, swift and sure. 



TERTIUM QUID. 131 

That same officious go-between, the wench 

Who gave and took the letters of the two, 1020 

Now otfers self and service back to me : 

Bears testimony to visits night by night 

When all was safe, the husband far and away, — 

To many a timely slipping out at large 

By light 0' the morning-star, ere he should wake. 1025 

And when the fugitives were found at last, 

Why, with them were found also, to belie 

What protest they might make of innocence. 

All documents yet wanting, if need were. 

To establish guilt in them, disgrace in me — 1030 

The chronicle o' the converse from its rise 

To culmination in this outrage : read! 

Letters from wife to priest, from priest to wife, — 

Here they are, read and say where they chime in 

With the other tale, superlative purity • 1035 

O' the pair of saints ! I stand or fall by these." 

But then on the other side again, — how say 

The pair of saints ? That not one word is theirs — 

No syllable o' the batch or writ or sent 

Or yet" received by either of the two. 1040 

" Found," says the priest, '• because he needed them. 

Failing all other proofs, to prove our fault. 

So, here they are, just as is natural. 

Oh yes — we had our missives, each of us ! 

Not these, but to the full as vile, no doubt : 1045 

Hers as from me, — she could not read, so burnt, — 

Mine as from her, — I burnt because I read. 

Who forged and found them ? Cui profueri7tt ! " ^ 

(1 take the phrase out of your Highness' mouth) 

" He who would gain by her fault and my fall, 1050 

The trickster, schemer and pretender — he 

Whose whole career was lie entailing lie 

Sought to be sealed tmth by the worst lie last ! " 

Guido rejoins — " Did the other end o' the tale 

Match this beginning ! 'T is alleged I prove 1055 

A murderer at the end, a man of force 

Prompt, indiscriminate, effectual: good! 

Then what need all this trifling woman's-work. 

Letters and embassies and weak intrigue, 

When will and power were mine to end at once 1060 

Safely and surely? Murder had come first 

Not last with such a man, assure yourselves! 

1 Cui prcfiierint : whom they might profit. 



132 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

The silent acquetta,^ stilling at command — - 

A drop a day i' the wine or soup, the dose, — 

The shattering beam that breaks above the bed 1065 

And beats out brains, witli nobody to blame 

Except the wormy age which eats even oak, — 

Nay, the staunch steel or trusty cord, — who cares 

r the blind old palace, a pitfall at each step, 

With none to see, much more to interpose 1070 

O' the two, three, creeping house-dog-servant-things 

Born mine and bred mine? Had I willed gross death, 

1 had found nearer paths to thrust him prey 

Than this that goes meandering here and there 

Through half the world and calls down in its course 1075 

Notice and noise, — hate, vengeance, should it fail, 

Derision and contempt though it succeed! 

Moreover, what o' the future son and heir? 

The unborn babe about to be called mine. — 

What end in heaping all this shame on him, 1080 

Were I indifferent to my own black share? 

Would I have tried these crookednesses, say, 

Willing and able to effect the straight? " 

"Ay, would you! " — one may hear the priest retort, 

"Being as you are, i' the stock, a man of guile, 1085 

And ruffianism but an added graft. 

You, a born coward, try a coward's arms, 

Trick and chicane, — and only when these fail 

Does violence follow, and like fox you bite 

Caught out in stealing. Also, the disgrace 1090 

You hardly shrunk at, wholly shrivelled her : 

You plunged her thin white delicate hand i' the flame 

Along with your coarse horny brutish fist. 

Held them a second there, then drew out both 

— Yours roughed a little, hers ruined through and through. 

Your hurt would heal forthwith at ointment's touch — 1096 

Namely, succession to the inheritance 

Which bolder crime had lost you : let things change, 

The birth o' the boy warrant the bolder crime, 

Why, murder was determined, dared and done. 1 100 

For me," the priest proceeds with his reply, 

" The look o' the thing, the chances of mistake. 

All were against me, — that, I knew the first : 

But, knowing also what my duty was, 

I did it : I must look to men more skilled 1 105 

In reading hearts than ever was the world." 

1 Acguetta : Aqua Tofana, a poisonous liquid much used in Italy in the seventeenth 
century. 



TERTIUM QUID. 1 33 

Highness, decide! Pronounce, Her Excellency! 

Or . . . even leave this argument in doubt, 

Account it a fit matter, taken up 

With all its faces, manifold enough, mo 

To ponder on — what fronts us, the next stage, 

Next legal process? Guido, in pursuit. 

Coming up with the fugitives at the inn, 

Caused both to be arrested then and there 

And sent to Rome for judgment on the case — 11 15 

Thither, with all his armory of proofs. 

Betook himself: 't is there we 11 meet him now, 

Waiting the further issue. 

Here you smile 
"And never let him henceforth dare to plead, — 
Of all pleas and excuses in the world 11 20 

For any deed hereafter to be done, — 
His irrepressible wrath at honor's wound! 
Passion and madness irrepressible ? 

" Why, Count and cavalier, the husband comes 
And catches foe i' the very act of shame! 11 25 

There's man to man, — nature must have her way, — 
We look he should have cleared things on the spot. 
Yes, then, indeed — even tho' it prove he erred — 
Though the ambiguous first appearance, mount 
Of solid injury, melt soon to mist, 1 130 

Still, — had he slain the lover and the wife — 
Or, since she was a woman and his wife. 
Slain him, but stript her naked to the skin 
Or at best left no more of an attire 

Than patch sufficient to pin paper to, 1135 

Some one love-letter, infamy and all. 
As passport to the Paphos ^ fit for such. 
Safe-conduct to her natural home the stews, — 
Good! One had recognized the power o' the pulse. 
But when he stands, the stock-fish. — sticks to law — 1140 
Offers the hole in his heart, all fresh and warm, 
For scrivener's pen to poke and play about — 
Can stand, can stare, can tell his beads perhaps, 
Oh, let us hear no syllable o' the rage ! 

Such rage were a convenient afterthought 1 145 

For one who would have shown his teeth belike, 
Exhibited unbridled rage enough. 
Had but the priest been found, as was to hope. 
In serge, not silk, with crucifix, not sword : 
Whereas the gray innocuous grub, of yore, 1 150 

' Paphos : Paphos, in Cyprus, was the which was there accompanied by licentious 
headquarters of the worship of Aphrodite, rites and practices. 



134 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Had hatched a hornet, tickle to the touch, 

The priest was metamorphosed into knight. 

And even the timid wife, whose cue was — shriek, 

Bury her brow beneath his trampling foot, — 

She too sprang at him like a pythoness : 1155 

So, gulp down rage, passion must be postponed. 

Calm be the word! Well, our word is — we brand 

This part o' the business, howsoever the rest 

Befall." 

"Nay," interpose as prompt his friends — 
"This is the world's way! So you adjudge reward 11 60 

To the forbearance and legality 
Yourselves begin by inculcating — ay. 
Exacting from us all with knife at throat! 
This one wrong more you add to wrong's amount, — 
You publish all, with the kind comment here, 1 165 

'■ Its victim was too cowardly for revenge.' " 
Make it your own case, — you who stand apart! 
The husband wakes one morn from heavy sleep, 
With a taste of poppy in his mouth, — rubs eyes. 
Finds his wife flown, his strong box ransacked too, 11 70 

Follows as he best can, overtakes i' the end. 
You bid him use his privilege : well, it seems 
He 's scarce cool-blooded enough for the right move — 
Does not shoot when the game were sure, but stands 
Bewildered at the critical minute, — since 1175 

He has the first flash of the fact alone 
To judge from, act with, not the steady lights 
Of after-knowledge, — yours who stand at ease 
To try conclusions : he 's in smother and smoke, 
You outside, with explosion at an end : 1 180 

The sulphur may be lightning or a squib — 
He '11 know in a minute, but till then, he doubts. 
Back from what you know to what he knew not! 
Hear the priest's lofty " I am innocent," 

The wife's as resolute '■ You are guilty! " Come! 1 185 

Are you not staggered? — pause, and you lose the move! 
Nought left you but a low appeal to law. 
"Coward" tied to your tail for compliment! 
Another consideration : have it your way! 

Admit the worst : his courage f;iiled the Count, II90 

He 's cowardly like the best o' the burgesses 
He 's grown incorporate with, — a very cur. 
Kick him from out your circle by all means! 
Why, trundled down this reputable stair. 

Still, the Church-door lies wide to take him in, 1 195 

And the Court-porch also : in he sneaks to each, — 
" Yes, I have lost my honor and my wife, 



TERTIUM QUID. . 137 

And, being moreover an ignoble hound, 

I dare not jeopardize my life for them! " 

Religion and Law lean forward from their chairs, 1200 

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant!" Ay, 

Not only applaud him that he scorned the world. 

But punish should he dare do otherwise. 

If the case be clear or turbid, — you must say! 

Thus, anyhow, it mounted to the stage 1205 

In the law-courts, — let's see clearly from this point! 

Where the priest tells his story true or false, 

And the wife her story, and the husband his. 

All with result as happy as before. 

The courts would nor condemn nor yet acquit 1210 

This, that or the other, in so distinct a sense 

As end the strife to either's absolute loss : 

Pronounced, in place of something definite, 

'• Each of the parties, whether goat or sheep 

r the main, has wool to show and hair to hide. 1215 

Each has brought somehow trouble, is somehow cause 

Of pains enough, — even though no worse were proved. 

Here is a husband, cannot rule his wife 

Without provoking her to scream and scratch 

And scour the fields, — causelessly, it may be ; 1220 

Here is that wife, — who makes her sex our plague. 

Wedlock, our bugbear, — perhaps with cause enough ; 

And here is the truant priest o' the trio, worst 

Or best — each quality being conceivable. 

Let us impose a little mulct on each. 1225 

We punish youth in state of pupilage 

Who talk at hours when youth is bound to sleep, 

Whether the prattle turn upon Saint Rose ^ 

Or Donna Olimpia "^ of the Vatican : 

'T is talk, talked wisely or unwisely talked. 1230 

r the dormitory where to talk at all, 

Transgresses, and is mulct : as here we mean. 

For the wife, — let her betake herself, for rest, 

After her run, to a house of Convertites — 

Keep there, as good as real imprisonment : 1235 

Being sick and tired, she will recover so. 

For the priest, spritely strayer out of bounds, 



1 Saint Rose : the Virgin Martyr of Beth- with red and white roses, " the first that ever 

lehem who rejected the suit of Hamuel, and any man saw." 

therefore was accused by him and condemned - Olimpia : the sister-in-law or the niece 

to be burned alive, but the flames caught at of Pope Innocent X. (1644) — both bore the 

Hamuel and burned him instead; leaving her name of Olimpia; — but the niece outdid her 

unhurt, and her stake budded and bloomed mother in voluptuousness. 



138 THE RING AXD THE BOOK. 

Well, at such crisis and extreme of straits, — 1330 

The man at bay. buffeted in this wise. — 

Happened the strangest accident of all. 

"Then," sigh friends, "the last feather broke his back, 

Made him forget all possible remedies 

Save one — he rushed to. as the sole relief 1335 

From horror and the abominable thing." 

" Or rather," laugh foes. " then did there befall 

The luckiest of conceivable events. 

Most pregnant with impunity for him. 

Which henceforth turned the flank of all attack, 1340 

And bade him do his wickedest and worst." 

— The wife's withdrawal from the Convertites, 
Visit to the villa where her parents lived, 

And birth there of his babe. Divergence here! 

I simply take the facts, ask what they show. 1345 

First comes this thunderclap of a surprise : 

Then follow all the signs and silences 

Premonitory of earthquake. Paolo first 

Vanished, was swept off somewhere, lost to Rome : 

(Wells dry up, while the sky is sunny and blue). 1350 

Then Guido girds himself for enterprise. 

Hies to Vittiano, counsels with his steward. 

Comes to terms with four peasants young and bold. 

And starts for Rome the Holy, reaches her 

At very holiest, for "t is Christmas Eve. 1355 

And makes straight for the Abate's dried-up font. 

The lodge where Paolo ceased to work the pipes. 

And then, rest taken, observation made 

And plan completed, all in a grim week. 

The five proceed in a body, reach the place, 1360 

— Pietro's. at the Paolina. silent, lone. 
And stupefied by the propitious snow. 

'T is one i' the evening : knock : a voice " Who 's there ? " 

" Friends with a letter from the priest your friend." 

At the door, straight smiles old Violante's self. 1365 

She falls, — her son-in-law stabs through and through, 

Reaches through her at Pietro — '• With your son 

This is the way to settle suits, good sire! " 

He bellows " Mercy for heaven, not for earth! 

Leave to confess and save my sinful soul, 1370 

Then do your pleasure on the body of me! " 

— "Nay, father, soul with body must take its chance!" 
He presently got his portion and lay still. 

And last, Pompilia rushes here and there 

Like a dove among the lightnings in her brake 1375 

Falls also : Guido's. this last husband's-act. 



TERTIUM QUID. 139 

He lifts her by the long dishevelled hair, 

Holds her away at arm's length with one hand. 

While the other tries if life come from the moutli — 

Looks out his whole heart's hate on the shut eyes, 1380 

Draws a deep satisfied breath. " So — dead at last!" 

Throws down the burden on dead Pietro's knees. 

And ends all with " Let us away, my boys ! " 

And, as they left by one door, in at the other 

Tumbled the neighbors — for the shrieks had pierced 1385 

To the mill and the grange, this cottage and that shed. 

Soon followed the Public Force ; pursuit began 

Though Guido had the start and chose the road : 

So, that same night was he, with the other four, 

Overtaken near Baccano, — where they sank 139° 

By the way-side, in some shelter meant for beasts, 

And now lay heaped together, nuzzling swine. 

Each wrapped in bloody cloak, each grasping still 

His unwiped weapon, sleeping all the same 

The sleep o' the just, — a journey of twenty miles ^395 

Brought just and unjust to a level, you see. 

The only one i' the world that suffered aught 

By the whole night's toil and trouble, flight and chase, 

Was just the officer who took them, Head 

O' the Public Force, — Patrizj, zealous soul, 1400 

Who, having but duty to sustain weak flesh, 

Got heated, caught a fever and so died : 

A warning to the over-vigilant, 

— Virtue in a chafe should change her linen quick. 

Lest pleurisy get start of providence. 1405 

(That's for the Cardinal, and told, I think!) 

Well, they bring back the company to Rome 

Says Guido, '' By your leave, I fain would ask 

How you found out 't was I who did the deed ? 

What put you on my trace, a foreigner, 1410 

Supposed in Arezzo, — and assuredly safe 

Except for an oversight : who told you, pray ? " 

'* Why, naturally your wife ! " Down Guido drops 

O' the horse he rode, — they have to steady and stay, 

At either side the brute that bore him, bound, 141 5 

So strange it seemed his wife should live and speak ! 

She had prayed — at least so people tell you now — 

For but one thing to the Virgin for herself, 

Not simply, as did Pietro 'mid the stabs, — 

Time to confess and get her own soul saved — 1420 

But time to make the truth apparent, truth 

For God''s sake, lest men should believe a lie : 



I40 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Which seems to have been about the single prayer 

She ever put up, that was granted her. 

With this hope in her head, of telhng truth, — 1425 

Being famiHarized with pain, beside, — 

She bore the stabbing to a certain pitch 

Without a useless cry, was flung for dead 

On Pietro's lap, and so attained her point. 

Her friends subjoin this — have I done with them? — 1430 

And cite the miracle of continued life 

(She was not dead when I arrived just now) 

As attestation to her probity. 

Does it strike your Excellency? Why, your Highness, 

The self-command and even the final prayer, v 1435 

Our candor must acknowledge explicable 

As easily by the consciousness of guilt. 

So, when they add that her confession runs 

She was of wifehood one white innocence 

In thought, word, act, from first of her short life 1440 

To last of it ; praying, i' the face of death. 

That God forgive her other sins — not this. 

She is charged with and must die for, that she failed 

Anyway to her husband : while thereon 

Comments the old Religious — '• So much good, 1445 

Patience beneath enormity of ill, 

1 hear to my confusion, woe is me, 

Sinner that I stand, shamed in the walk and gait 

I have practised and grown old in, by a child! " — 

Guido's friends shrug the shoulder, "Just this same 1450 

Prodigious absolute calm in the last hour 

Confirms us, — being the natural result 

Of a life which proves consistent to the close. 

Having braved heaven and deceived earth throughout. 

She braves still and deceives still, gains thereby 1455 

Two ends, she prizes beyond earth or heaven : 

First sets her lover free, imperilled sore 

By the new turn things take : he answers yet 

For the part he played : they have summoned him indeed : 

The past ripped up, he may be punished still : 1460 

What better way of saving him than this? 

Then, — thus she dies revenged to the uttermost 

On Guido, drags him with her in the dark. 

The lower still the better, do you doubt? 

Thus, two ways, does she love her love to the end, 1465 

And hate her hate, — death, hell is no such price 

To pay for these, — lovers and haters hold." 

But there 's another parry for the thrust. 

"Confession,'" crv folks — "a confession, think! 



TERTIL'} 

Confession of the moribu 

Wliich of them, my wise 

Or the private other we 

The private may cont? 

The acknowledgment 

That other i^ublic om 

However it be. — we 

Her Eminence is pe 

Can one find nothii 

Catastrophe ? De 

You criticise the f 

Maniacal gesture 

But who poured 

Recall the list of 

First cheated in 

Rendered anon 

By the stor\-, t 

The last seal 

By the open 

Step out of I 

What anoth 

Mere world) 
Thinks of ji 
Guido prefi 
The court 
In virtue - 
Where tl 
Self-sam 
Where ' 
Ended : 
By twc 
There 
Bv A 
Whi' 
But 
Fre 

Of 

T 

T 

T 



'D THE BOOK. 

that, revenging wrong, 
ill at first 
■. the final charge. 
i' the case ? — ask we. 1 520 

'ants prompt redress ; 
I week, 
or now, revenge! 
ankles worse and worse. 
"Not this once 1525 

ed times 
rogue : 
ime ? 
ortal too, 

ed times, 1530 

years, 
nd worse! 
1e this way, 



1535 

ur arm « 

•ubt 

-ct. 

■ next 1540 

ise, 



1545 



155c 



'555 



TERTIUM (2CID. 



143 



And, though a dozen follow and reinforce 

The aggressor, woimd in front and wound in flank, 

Continues undisturbedly pursuit, 

And only after prostrating his prize 

Turns on the pettier, makes a general prey. 1565 

So (kiido rushed against Violante. first 

Author of all his wrongs, fans ct origo'^ 

MaloriiDu — drops first, deluge since, — which done, 

He finished with the rest. Do you blame a bull ? 

In truth you look as puzzled as ere I preached! 1570 

How is that? There are difiiculties perhaps 

On any supposition, and either side. 

Each party wants too much, claims sympathy 

For its object of compassion, more than just. 

Cry the wife's friends, " O the enormous crime 1575 

Caused by no ^ .rovocation in the world! " 

"Was not the wife a little weak? " — inquire — 

" Punished extravag,\ntly. if you please, 

But merumg a little punishment? 

One t'eated inconsiderately, say. 1580 

^^ther than one deserving' not at all 

, eatment and discipline o' the harsher sort?" 
1 o. they must have her purity itself. 

2uite angel, — and her parents angels too 

di an aged sort, immaculate, word and deed : 1585 

At all events, so seeming, till the fiend. 

Even Guido, by his folly, forced from them 

The untoward avowal of the trick o' the birth, 

Which otherwise were safe and secret now. 

Why, here you have the awfulest of crimes 1590 

For nothing! Hell broke loose on a butterfly! 

A dragon born of rose-dew and the moon! 

Yet here is the monster! Why he's a mere man — 

Born, bred and brouglit up in the usual way. 

His mother loves him. still his brothers stick 1595 

To the good fellow of the boyish games ; 

The Governor of his town knows and approves, 

The Archbishop of the place knows and assists: 

Here he has Cardinal This to vouch for the past. 

Cardinal That to trust for the future. — match 1600 

And marriage were a Cardinal's making, — in short, 

What if a tragedy be acted here 

Impossible for malice to improve, 

And innocent Guido with his innocent four 

Be added, all five, to the guilty three. 1605 

> Fans et origo Malorum : the fount and origin of evils. 



144 THE RfiYG AND THE BOOK. 

That we of these last days be edified 

With one full taste o' the justice of the world? 

The long and the short is, tioith seems what I show : — 

Undoubtedly no pains ought to be spared 

To give the mob an inkling of our lights. i6io 

It seems unduly harsh to put the mar. 

To the torture, as I hear the court intends, 

Though readiest way of twisting out the truth ; 

He is noble, and he may be innocent. 

On the other hand, if they exempt the man 1615 

(As it is also said they hesitate 

On the fair ground, presumptive guilt is weak 

r the case of nobility and privilege), — 

What crime that ever was, ever will be. 

Deserves the torture? Then abolish it! 1620 

You see the reduction ad absiirduvi, Sirs ? 

Her Excellency must pronounce, in fine ! 

What, she prefers going and joi ling play? 

Her Highness finds it late, intends retire? 

I am of their mind : only, all this talk talked, 1625 

'T was not for nothing that we talked, I hope? 

Both know as much about it, now, at least, 

As all Rome : no particular thanks, I beg! 

(You '11 see, I have not so advanced myself, 

After my teaching the two idiots here! ) 1630 



COUNT CUIDO FRANCESCHINT. 



145 



COUNT GUIDO FRANCESCHINI. 



[In Book V. Guido, having confessed to the murder under torture, presents his 
defence, in the course of which he tells the story from his point of view. He makes 
the most of the undoubted appearances in his favor, namely, the cheat perpetrated 
upon him by Violante and the elopement of Pompilia ; by putting the worst possible 
construction upon them, he represents himself as justified in his actions because of 
the failure on the part of the so-called parents and Pompilia to fulfil their share 
of the agreement, and as goaded on, finally, when he hears of the birth of a child, 
to commit the murder as the lawful and only means by which he can vindicate his 
outraged honor.] 



Thanks, Sir, but, should it please the reverend Court, 

I feel I can stand somehow, half sit down 

Without help, make shift to even speak, you see, 

Fortified by the sip of . . . why 't is wine, 

Velletri,! — and not vinegar and gall, 5 

So changed and good the times grow! Thanks, kind Sir! 

Oh. but one sip's enough! I want my head 

To save my neck, there's work awaits me still. 

How cautious and considerate . . . aie, aie, aie, 

Nor your fault, sweet Sir! Come, you take to heart lo 

An ordinary matter. Law is law. 

Noblemen were ex'empt, the vulgar thought, 

From racking ; but, since law thinks otherwise, 

I have been put to the rack : all \s over now. 

And neither wrist — what men style, out of joint : 15 

If any harm be, \ is the shoulder-blade. 

The left one, that seems wrong i' the socket, — Sirs, 

Much could not happen, I was quick to faint. 

Being past my prime of life, and out of health. ^, ' 

In short, I thank you, — yes, and mean the word. 20 

Needs must the Court be slow to understand 

How this quite novel form of taking pain. 

This getting tortured merely in the flesh. 

Amounts to almost an agreeable change 

In my case, me fastidious, plied too much 25 

With opposite treatment, used (forgive the joke) 

To the rasp-tooth toying with this brain of mine. 

And, in and out my heart, the play o' the probe. 



^ 



1 VelUtri : wine made at Velletri, whose volcanic soil was especially favorable for vine 
culture. 



146 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Four years have I been operated on 

r the soul, do you see — its tense or tremulous part — 30 

My self-respect, my care for a good name, 

Pride in an old one, love of kindred — just 

A mother, brothers, sisters, and the like. 

That looked up to my face when days were dim. 

And fancied they found light there — no one spot, 35 

Foppishly sensitive, but has paid its pang. 

That, and not this you now oblige me with, 

That was the Vigil-torment, ^ if you please! 

The poor old noble House that drew the rags 

O' the Franceschini's once superb array 40 

Close round her, hoped to slink unchallenged by, — 

Pluck off these ! Turn the drapery inside out 

And teach the tittering town how scarlet wears! 

Show men the lucklessness, the improvidence 

Of the easy-natured Count before this Count, 45 

The father I have some slight feeling for, 

Who let the world slide, nor foresaw that friends 

Then proud to cap and kiss their patron's shoe, 

Would, when the purse he left held spider-webs, 

Properly push his child to wall one day! 50 

Mimic the tetchy humor, furtive glance, 

And brow where half was furious, half fatigued, 

O' the same son got to be of middle age. 

Sour, saturnine, — your humble servant here, — 

When things go cross and the young wife, he finds 55 

Take to the window at a whistle's bid. 

And yet demurs thereon, preposterous fool ! — , 

Whereat the worthies judge he wants advice 

And beg to civilly ask what 's evil here, 

Perhaps remonstrate on the habit they deem 60 

He 's given unduly to, of beating her : 

. . Oh, sure he beats her — why says John so else, 
Who is cousin to George who is sib '^ to Tecla's self 
Who cooks the meal and combs the lady's hair? 
What ! 'T is my wrist you merely dislocate 65 

For the future when you mean me martyrdom? 

— Let the old mother's economy alone. 

How the brocade-strips saved o' the seamy side 
O'' the wedding-gown buy raiment for a year ? 

— How she can dress and dish up — lordly dish 70 
Fit for a duke, lamb's head and purtenance — 

With her proud hands, feast household so a week? 
No word o' the wine rejoicing God and man 
The less when three-parts water? Then, I say, 

' Vigil-torment : sec note, I. 972. - Sib : see note, II. 509. 



COUNT GUIDO FRANCESCHINI. 147 

A trifle of torture to the flesh, like yours, 75 

While soul is spared such foretaste of hell-fire, 

Is naught. But I curtail the catalogue 

Through policy, — a rhetorician's trick, — 

Because I would reserve some choicer points 

O' the practice, more exactly parallel 80 

(Having an eye to climax) with what gift. 

Eventual grace the Court may have in store 

r the way of plague — what crown of punishments. 

When I am hanged or headed,^ time enough 

To prove the tenderness of only that, 85 

Mere heading, hanging, — not their counterpart. 

Not demonstration public and precise 

That 1, having married the mongrel of a drab, 

Am bound to grant tiiat mongrel-brat, my wife. 

Her mother's birthright-license as is just, — 90 

Let her sleep undisturbed, i' the family style, 

Her sleep out in the embraces of a priest, 

Nor disallow their bastard as my heir! 

Your sole mistake, —dare I submit so much 

To the reverend Court? — has been in all this pains 95 

To make a stone roll down hill, — rack and wrench 

And rend a man to pieces, all for what? 

Why — make him ope mouth in his own defence. 

Show cause for what he has done, the irregular deed, 

(Since that he did it, scarce dispute can be) 100 

And clear his fame a little, beside the luck 

Of stopping even yet, if possible. 

Discomfort to his flesh from noose or axe — 

For that, out come the implements of law! 

May it content my lords the gracious Court 105 

To listen only half so patient-long 

As I will in that sense profusely speak. 

And — fie, they shall not call in screws to help! 

1 killed Pompilia Franceschini, Sirs ; 

Killed too the Comparini, husband, wife, 1 10 

Who called themselves, by a notorious lie. 

Her father and her mother to ruin me. 

There's the irregular deed : you want no more 

Than right interpretation of the same, 

And truth so far — am I to understand? II5 

To that then, with convenient speed, — because 

Now I consider, —yes, despite my boast. 

There is an ailing in this omoplat - 

May clip my speech all too abruptly short. 

Whatever the good-will in me. Now for truth! 120 

Headed : old form of beheaded. ^ Omoplat : shoulder-blade 



148 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

r the name of the indivisible Trinity! 

Will my lords, in the plenitude of their light, 

Weigh well that all this trouble has come on me 

Through my persistent treading in the paths 

Where 1 was trained to go, — wearing that yoke 125 

My shoulder was predestined to receive. 

Born to the hereditary stoop and crease ? 

Noble, 1 recognized my nobler still. 

The Church, my suzerain ; no mock-mistress, she ; 

The secular owned the spiritual : mates of mine 130 

Have thrown their careless hoofs up at her call 

'• Forsake the clover and come drag my wain I "' 

There they go cropping : 1 protruded nose 

To halter, bent my back of docile beast. 

And now am whealed,^ one wide wound all of me, 135 

For being found at the eleventh hour o' the day 

Padding the mill-track, not neck-deep in grass; 

— My one fault, 1 am stiffened by my work, 

— My one reward, 1 help the Court to smile! 

1 am representative of a great line, 140 

One of the first of the old families 

In Arezzo, ancientest of Tuscan towns. 

When my worst foe is fain to challenge this. 

His worst exception runs — not first in rank 

But second, noble in the next degree 145 

Only ; not malice' self maligns me more. 

So, my lord opposite has composed, we know, 

A marvel of a book, sustains the point 

That Francis - boasts the primacy 'mid saints ; 

Yet not inaptly hath his argument 150 

Obtained response from yon my other lord ■ 

In thesis published with the world's applause 

— Rather 't is Dominic^ such post beiits : 
Why, at the worst, Francis stays Francis still, 

Second in rank to Dominic it may be, 155 

Still, very saintly, very like our Lord ; 

And I at least descend from Guido once 

Homager * to the Empire, nought below — 

Of which account as proof that, none o' the line 

Having a single gift beyond brave blood, 160 

Or able to do ought but give, give, give 

In blood and brain, in house and land and cash. 

Not get and garner as the vulgar may, 

' Whealed : marked by strokes ' Dominic: St. Dominic, founder of the 

^Francis'. St. Francis of Assisi, founder order of Dominicans, 1170-1221. 
of the order of Franciscans, 1 182-1226. ■• Homager : one who holds lands subject 

to homage. 



COLiyr GUI DO FRA.XCESCHIXI. 149 

We became poor as Francis or our Lord. 
Be that as it likes you, Sirs. — wlienever it clianced 165 

Myself grew capable anyway of remark, 
(VVhich was soon — penury makes wit premature) 
This struck me, 1 was poor who should be rich 
Or pay that fault to the world which trifles not 
When lineage lacks the flag yet lifts the pole : 170 

On, therefore, I must move forthwith, transfer 
My stranded self, born fish with gill and fin 
Fit for the deep sea, now left flap bare-backed 
In slush and sand, a show to crawlers vile 
Reared of the low-tide and aright therein. 175 

The enviable youth with the old name, 
Wide chest, stout arms, sound brow and prickmg veins, 
A heartful of desire, man's natural load, 
A brainful of belief, the noble's lot, — 

All this life, cramped and gasping, high and dry 180 

r the wave's retreat, — the misery, good my lords, 
Which made you merriment at Rome of late, — 
It made me reason, rather — muse, demand 
— Why our bare dropping palace, in the street 
Where such-an-one whose grandfather sold tripe 185 

Was adding to his purchased pile a fourth 
Tall tower, could hardly show a turret sound? 
Why Countess Beatrice, whose son 1 am. 
Cowered in the winter-time as she spun flax, 
Blew on the earthen basket of live ash, 190 

Instead of jaunting forth in coach and six 
Like such-another widow who ne'er was wed? 
I asked my fellows, how came this about? 
" Why, Jack, the suttler's child, perhaps the camp's, 
Went' to the wars, fought sturdily, took a town 195 

And got rewarded as was natural. 
She of the coach and six — excuse me there! 
Why, don't you know the story of her friend? 
A clown dressed vines on somebody's estate. 
His boy recoiled from muck, liked Latin more, 200 

Stuck to his pen and got to be a priest. 
Till one day . . . don't you mind that telling tract 
Against Molinos, the old Cardinal wrote ?^ 
He penned and dropped it in the patron's desk 
Who, deep in thought and absent much of mind, 205 

Licensed the thing, allowed it for his own ; 
Quick came promotion, — simin cuiqiie,- Count! 

' Tract against Molinos : probably imag- hearsing and confuting the main propositions 
inary. Cardinal Cibo. Secretary of State to of Molinos. 
Pope Innocent XI., wrote in 1686 a tract re- » Suum cuique : let each have bis own. 



:50 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Oh. he can pay for coach and six, be sure! " 

" — Well, let me go, do likewise : war's the word — 

That way the Franceschini worked at first, 210 

I'll take my turn, try soldiership." — "What, you? 

The eldest son and heir and prop o' the house, 

So do you see your duty? Here 's your post, 

Hard by the hearth and altar. (Roam from roof, 

This youngster, play the gipsy out of doors, 215 

And who keeps kith and kin that fall on us?) 

Stand fast, stick tight, conserve your gods at home!" 

" — Well then, the quiet course, the contrary trade! 

We had a cousin amongst us once was Pope, 

And minor glories manifold. Try the Church. 220 

The tonsure, and, — since heresy 's but half-slain 

Even by the Cardinal's tract he thought he wrote, — 

Have at Molinos! " — '' Have at a fool's head! 

You a priest? How were marriage possible? 

There must be Franceschini till time ends — 225 

That 's your vocation. Make your brothers priests, 

Paul shall be porporate.^ and Girolamo step 

Red-stockinged in the presence when you choose, 

But save one Franceschini for the age! 

Be not the vine but dig and dung its root, 230 

Be not a priest but gird up priesthood's loins, 

With one foot in Arezzo stride to Rome, 

Spend yourself there and bring the purchase back! 

Go hence to Rome, be guided! " 

So I was. 
I turned alike from the hill-side zig-zag thread 235 

Of way to the table-land a soldier takes. 
Alike from the low-lying pasture-place 
Where churchmen graze, recline and ruminate, 
■ — Ventured to mount no platform like my lords 
Who judge the world, bear brain I dare not brag — 240 

But stationed me, might thus the expression serve. 
As who should fetch and carry, come and go. 
Meddle and make i' the cause my lords love most — 
The public weal, which hangs to the law, which holds 
By the Church, which happens to be through God himself. 245 
Humbly I helped the Church till here I stand, — 
Or would stand but for the omoplat, you see! 
Bidden qualify for Rome, I, having a field. 
Went, sold it, laid the sum at Peter's foot : 

Which means — I settled home-accounts with speed, 250 

Set apart just a modicum should sufiice 

' Porporate : wearing purple, the color of a cardinal. 



COUNT GUIDO FRA.YCESCHim. 151 

To hold the villa's head above the waves 

Of weed inundating its oil and wine, 

And prop roof, stanchion wall o' the palace so 

As to keep breath i' the body, out of heart 255 

Amid the advance of neighboring loftiness — 

(People like building whore they used to beg) — 

Till succored one day, — shared the residue 

Between my mother and brothers and sisters there, 

Black-eyed babe Donna This and Donna That, 260 

As near to starving as might decently be, 

— Left myself journey-charges, change of suit, 
A purse to put i' the pocket of the Groom 

O' the Chamber of the patron, and a glove 

With a ring to it for the digits of the niece 265 

Sure to be helpful in his household, — then 

Started for Rome, and led the life prescribed. 

Close to the Church, though clean of it, I assumed 

Three or four orders of no consequence, 

— They cast out evil spirits and exorcise, 270 
For example ; bind a man to nothing more, 

Give clerical savor to his layman's-salt. 

Facilitate his claim to loaf and fish 

Should miracle leave, beyond what feeds the flock. 

Fragments to brim the basket of a friend — 275 

While, for the world's sake, I rode, danced and gamed, 

Quitted me like a courtier, measured mine 

With whatsoever blade had fame in fence, 

— Ready to let the basket go its round 

Even though my turn was come to help myself, 280 

Should Dives count on me at dinner-time 

As just the understander of a joke 

And not immoderate in repartee. 

Utrique sic paratus} Sirs, I said, 

" Here," (in the fortitude of years fifteen, 285 

So good a pedagogue is penury) 

"Here wait, do service, — serving and to serve! 

And, in due time, I nowise doubt at all. 

The recognition of my service comes. 

Next year I 'm only sixteen. I can wait." 290 

I waited thirty years, may it please the Court : 

Saw meanwhile many a denizen o' the dung 

Hop, skip, jump o'er my shoulder, make him wings 

And fly aloft, — succeed, in the usual phrase. 

Every one soon or late comes round by Rome : 295 

Stand still here, you '11 see all in turn succeed. 

' Utrigiie sic paratus : thus prepared for either. 



152 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Why, look you, so and so, the physician here, 

My father's lacquey's son we sent to school. 

Doctored and dosed this Eminence and that. 

Salved the last Pope his certain obstinate sore, 300 

Soon bought land as became him. names it now : ' 

I grasp bell at his griffin-guarded gate, 

Traverse the half-mile avenue, — a term,^ 

A cypress, and a statue, three and three, — 

Deliver message from my Monsignor, 305 

With varletry at lounge i' the vestibule 

I 'm barred from who bear mud upon my shoe. 

My father's chaplain's nephew. Chamberlain. — 

Nothing less, please you! — courteous all the same, 

— He does not see me though"! wait an hour 310 

At his staircase-landing 'twixt the brace of busts, 

A noseless Sylla, Marius - maimed to match, 

My father gave him for a hexastich ^ 

Made on my birthday, — but he sends me down, 

To make amends, that relic I prize most — 315 

The unburnt end o' the very candle. Sirs, 

Purfled^ with paint so prettily round and round, 

He carried in such state last Peter's-day, — 

In token I, his gentleman and squire. 

Had held the bridle, walked his managed mule 320 

Without a tittup ^ the procession through. 

Nay, the official, — one you know, sweet lords! — 

Who drew the warrant for my transfer late 

To the New Prisons ^ from Tordinona,'^ — he 

Graciously had remembrance — •' Francesc . . . ha? 325 

His sire, now — how a thing shall come about! — 

Paid me a dozen florins above the fee, 

For drawing deftly up a deed of sale 

When troubles fell so thick on him, good heart, 

And I was prompt and pushing! By all means! 330 

At the New Prisons be it his son shall lie, — 

Anything for an old friend!" and thereat 

Signed name with triple flourish underneath. 

These were my fellows, such their fortunes now, 

While I — kept fasts and feasts innumerable, 33; 

Matins and vespers, functions to no end 



' Term: a figure of Terminus, the god of ^ New Prisons: built by Innocent X., 

boundaries, consisting of a bust ending in a were the first prisons on the cellular system 

rectangular pedestal. in Europe 

2 Sylla, Marius : Roman generals. ' Tordinona : Tower of Nona, used as a 

^Hexastich : stanza of six lines. prison, and destroyed in 1690; therefore 

* Purfted : decorated. Guido could not have been imprisoned in it. 

* Tittup : a skittish prance or canter. • 



COUNT GUIDO FRAXCESCHINr. 153 

r the train of Monsignor and Eminence, 

As gentleman-squire, and for my zeal's reward 

Have rarely missed a place at the table-foot 

Except when some Ambassador, or such like, 340 

IJrought his own people. Brief, one day I felt 

The tick of time inside me, turning-point 

And slight sense there was now enough of this : 

Tliat I was near my seventh climacteric, 

Hard upon, if not over, the middle life, 345 

And althougii fed by the east-wind, fulsome-fine 

With foretaste of the Land of Promise, still 

.My gorge gave symptom it might play me false ; 

Better not press it further, — be content 

With living and dying only a nobleman, 350 

Who merely had a father great and rich. 

Who simply had one greater and richer yet, 

And so on back and back till lirst and best 

Began i" the night ; I finish in the day. 

" The mother must be getting old," I said ; 355 

" The sisters are well wedded away, our name 

Can manage to pass a sister olT, at need. 

And do for dowry ; both my brothers thrive — 

Regular priests they are, nor, bat-like, 'bide 

'Twi.xt flesh and fowl with neither privilege. 360 

My spare revenue must keep me and mine. 

I am tired : Arezzo's air is good to breathe ; 

V'ittiano. — one limes ^ flocks of thrushes there ; 

A leathern coat costs little and lasts long: 

Let me bid hope good-bye, content at home! " 365 

Thus, one day, I disbosomed me and bowed. 

Whereat began the little buzz and tiirill 

O' the gazers round me ; each face brightened up : 

As when at your Casino, deep in dawn, 

A gamester says at last, " I play no more, 370 

Forego gain, acquiesce in loss, withdraw 

Anyhow : "" and the watchers of his ways, 

A trifle struck compunctious at the word. 

Yet sensible of relief, breathe free once more. 

Break up the ring, venture polite advice — 375 

" How, Sir? So scant of heart and hope indeed? 

Retire with neither cross nor pile from play ? — 

So incurious, so short-casting? — give your chance 

To a younger, stronger, bolder spirit belike. 

Just when luck turns and the fine throw sweeps all?" 380 

Such was the chorus : and its good-will meant — 

"See that the loser leave door handsomely! 

' Limes : ensnares. 



154 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

There's an ill look, — it's sinister, spoils sport, 

When an old bruised and battered year-by-year 

Fighter with fortune, not a penny in poke, 385 

Reels down the steps of our establishment 

\nd staggers on broad daylight and the world. 

In shagrag beard and doleful doublet, drops 

And breaks his heart on the outside : people prate 

' Such is the profit of a trip upstairs!' 390 

Contrive he sidle forth, baulked of the blow 

Best dealt by way of moral, bidding down 

No curse but blessings rather on our heads 

For some poor prize he bears at tattered breast, 

Some palpable sort of kind of good to set 395 

Over and against the grievance : give him quick! " 

Whereon protested Paul, "Go hang yourselves! 

Leave him to me. Count Guido and brother of mine, 

A word in your ear! Take courage, since faint heart 

Ne'er won . . . aha, fair lady, don't men say ? 400 

There 's a so7's^ there 's a right Virgilian dip! - 

Do you see the happiness o' the hint? At worst, 

If the Church want no more of you, the Court 

No more, and the Camp as little, the ingrates, — come. 

Count you are counted : still you 've coat to back, 405 

Not cloth of gold and tissue, as we hoped. 

But cloth with sparks and spangles on its frieze 

From Camp, Court, Church, enough to make a shine. 

Entitle you to carry home a wife 

With the proper dowry, let the worst betide! 410 

Why, it was just a wife you meant to take!" 

Now, Paul's advice was weighty : priests should know : 

And Paul apprised me, ere the week was out. 

That Pietro and Violante, the easy pair. 

The cits enough, with stomach to be more, 41 5 

Had just the daughter and exact the sum 

To truck 3 for the quality of myself : " She _'s young, 

Pretty and rich : you're noble, classic, choice. 

Is it to be a match ? " "A match," said I. 

Done! He proposed all. I accepted all, 420 

And we performed all. So I said and did 

Simply. As simply followed, not at first 

But with the outbreak of misfortune, still 

One comment on the saying and doing — "What? 

No blush at the avowal you dared buy 425 

» Sors : lot. ^ Truck : exchange. 

' There 's a right Virgilian dip ! the 
Romans used to open their Virgil at random 
for guidance. 



COi'XT GUI DO FRANCESCHIiYI. 155 

A girl of age beseems your granddaughter, 
Like ox or ass? Are flesh and blood a ware? 
Are heart and soul a chattel ? "" 

Softly, Sirs! 
Will the Court of its charity teach poor me 
Anxious to learn, of any way i" the world, 430 

Allowed by custom and convenience, save 
This same which, taught from my youth up, I trod? 
Take me along with you ; where was the wrong step ? 
If what 1 gave in barter, style and state 

And all that hangs to Franceschinihood, 435 

Were worthless, — why. society goes to ground. 
Its rules are idiot's-rambling. Honor of birth, — 
If that thing has no value, cannot buy 
Something with value of another sort. 

You've no reward nor punishment to give 440 

r the giving or the taking honor; straight 
Your social fabric, pinnacle to base. 
Comes down a-clatter. like a house of cards. 
Get honor, and keep honor free from flaw, 
Aim at still higher honor, — gabble o' the goose! 445 

Go bid a second blockhead like myself 
Spend fifty years in guarding bubbles of breath. 
Soapsuds with air i' the belly, gilded brave. 
Guarded and guided, all to break at touch 
O' the first young girl's hand and first old fool's purse! 450 
All my privation and endurance, all 
Love, loyalty and labor dared and did, 
Fiddle-de-dee ! — why, doer and darer both, — 
Count Guido Franceschini had hit the mark 
Far better, spent his life with more effect, 455 

As a dancer or a prizer, trades that pay! 
On the other hand, bid this buffoonery cease, 
Admit that honor is a privilege. 
The question follows, privilege worth what? 
Why, worth the market-price, — now up, now down, 460 

Just so with this as with all other ware : 
Therefore essay the market, sell your name. 
Style and condition to who buys them best! 
'• Does my name purchase," had I dared inquire, 
"Your niece, my lord?" there would have been rebuff" 465 
Though courtesy, your Lordship cannot else — 
" Not altogether! Rank for rank may stand : 
But I have wealth beside, you — povertv ; 
Your scale flies up there : bid a second bid 
Rank too and wealth too!"" Reasoned like yourself! 470 

But was it to you I went with goods to sell? 



156 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

This time 't was my scale quietly kissed the ground, 

Mere rank against mere wealth — some youth beside, 

Some beauty too, thrown into the bargain, just 

As the buyer likes or lets alone. I thought 475 

To deal o' the square : others find fault, it seems : 

The thing is, those my ofter most concerned, 

Pietro, Violante, cried they fair or foul? 

What did they make o' the terms? Preposterous terms? 

Why then accede so promptly, close with such 480 

Nor take a minute to chaffer? Bargain struck. 

They straight grew bilious, wished their money back, 

Repented them, no doubt : why, so did I, 

So did your Lordship, if town-talk be true, 

Of paying a full farm's worth for that piece 485 

By Pietro of Cortona ^ — probably 

His scholar Giro Ferri - may have retouched — 

You caring more for color than design — 

Getting a little tired of cupids too. 

That's incident to all the folk who buy! 490 

I am charged, I know, with gilding fact by fraud ; 

I falsified and fabricated, wi-ote 

Myself down roughly richer than I prove, 

Rendered a wrong revenue, — grant it all! 

Mere grace, mere coquetry sucli fraud, I say : 495 

A flourish round the figures of a sum 

For fashion's sake, that deceives nobody. 

The veritable backbone, understood 

Essence of this same bargain, blank and bare, 

Being the exchange of quality for wealth, — 500 

What may such fancy-flights be? Flecks of oil 

Flirted by chapmen where plain dealing grates. 

I may have dripped a drop — " My name I sell ; 

Not but that I too boast my wealth " — as they, 

" — We bring you riches ; still our ancestor 505 

Was hardly the rapscallion folk saw flogged. 

But heir to we know who, were rights of force! " 

They knew and I knew where the backbone lurked 

I' the writhings of the bargain, lords, believe! 

I paid down all engaged for, to a doit, 510 

Delivered them just that which, their life long. 

They hungered in the hearts of them to gain — 

Incorporation with nobility thus 

In word and deed : for that they gave me wealth. 

But when they came to try their gain, my gift, 515 

Quit Rome and qualify for Arezzo, take 

'^ Pietro of Cortona : mainly a scenic and ^ Ciro 'Ferri : a pupil of Cortona who 

fresco painter, 1596-1669. imitated his master, 1634-1689. 



COUNT GUIDO FRANCESCHINI. 157 

The tone o' the new sphere that absorbed the old, 

Put away gossip Jack and goody Joan 

And go become famihar with the Great, 

Greatness to touch and taste and handle now, — 520 

Why then, — they found that all was vanity. 

Vexation, and what Solomon describes I 

The old abundant city-fare was best, 

The kindly warmth o' the commons, the glad clap 

Of the equal on the shoulder, the frank grin 525 

Of the underling at all so many spoons 

Fire-new at neighborly treat, — best, best and best 

Beyond compare! — down to the loll itself 

O' the pot-house settle, — better such a bench 

Than the stiff crucifixion by my dais 530 

Under the piecemeal damask canopy 

With the coroneted coat of arms a-top! 

Poverty and privation for pride's sake, 

All they engaged to easily brave and bear, — 

With the fit upon them and their brains a-work, — 535 

Proved unendurable to the sobered sots. 

A banished prince, now, will exude a juice 

And salamander-like support the flame : 

He dines on chestnuts, chucks the husks to help 

The broil o' the brazier, pavs the due baioc.^ 540 

Goes off light-hearted : his grimace begins 

At the funny humors of the christening-feast 

Of friend the money-lender, — then he's touched 

By the flame and frizzles at the babe to kiss! 

Here was the converse trial, opposite mind : 545 

Here did a petty nature split on rock 

Of vulgar wants predestinate for such — 

One dish at supper and weak wine to boot ! 

The prince had grinned and borne : the citizen shrieked, 

Summoned the neighborhood to attest the wrong, 550 

Made noisy protest he was murdered, — stoned 

And burned and drowned and hanged, — then broke away, 

He and his wife, to tell their Rome the rest. 

And this you admire, you men o' the world, my lords? 

This moves compassion, makes you doubt my faith? 555 

Wh}', I appeal to . . . sun and moon? Not I! 

Rather to Plautus,- Terence,-^ Boccaccio's Book,'* 

iMy townsman, frank Ser Franco's merry Tales, — ^ 

' Baioc : about a halfpenny < Boccaccio's Book : " Decameron " (1313- 

' Piai(tus : a famous comic poet of Rome, 1375). 

died 184 B.C. 5 5^^ Franco : apparently Franco Sac- 

•* Terence : celebrated dramatist, writer of chetti, who lived about 1335-1410, author of 

comedies, died 159 B.C. stories in the manner of Boccaccio. Petrarch, 



158 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

To all who strip a vizard from a face, 

A body from its padding, and a soul 560 

From froth and ignorance it styles itself, — 

If this be other than the daily hap 

Of purblind greed that dog-like still drops bone, 

Grasps shadow, and then howls the case is hard! 

So much for them so far : now for myself. 565 

My profit or loss i' the matter: married am I : 

Text whereon friendly censors burst to preach. 

Ay, at Rome even, long ere I was left 

To regulate her life for my young bride 

Alone at Arezzo, friendliness outbroke 570 

(Sifting my future to predict its fault) 

" Purchase and sale being thus so plain a point, 

How of a certain soul bound up, may-be, 

r the barter with the body and money-bags? 

From the bride's soul what is it you expect?" 575 

Why, loyalty and obedience, — wish and will 

To settle and suit her fresh and plastic mind 

To the novel, not disadvantageous mould! 

Father and mother shall the woman leave, 

Cleave to the husband, be it for weal or woe : 580 

There is the law : what sets this law aside 

In my particular case? My friends submit 

"Guide, guardian, benefactor, — fee, faw, fum, 

The fact is you are forty-five years old. 

Nor very comely even for that age : 585 

Girls must have boys." Why, let girls say so then, 

Nor call the boys and men, who say the same, 

Brute this and beast the other as they do! 

Come, cards on table! When you chaunt us next 

Epithalamium full to overflow 590 

With praise and glory of white womanhood. 

The chaste and pure — troll no such lies o'er lip! 

Put in their stead a crudity or two, 

Such short and simple statement of the case 

As youth chalks on our walls at spring of year! 595 

No! I shall still think nobler of the sex, 

Believe a woman still may take a man 

For the short period that his soul wears flesh. 

And, for the soul's sake, understand the fault 

Of armor frayed by fighting. Tush, it tempts 600 

One's tongue too much! I '11 say — the law 's the law : 

With a wife I look to find all wifeliness, 

to whom the term " townsman " better applies Florentine), wrote nothing that can be de- 
(since Sacchetti, though a Tuscan, was a scribed as " merry tales.' 



COUNT GC'/DO FRANCESCHrm. 159 

As wlien I buy, timber and twig, a tree — 
I buy the song o' the nightingale inside. 

Such was the pact : Pompilia from the tirst 605 

Brolve it, refused from the beginning day 

Either in body or soul to cleave to n>ine, 

And published it forthwith to all the world. 

No rupture, — you must join ere you can break, — 

Before we had cohabited a month 610 

She found I was a devil and no man, — 

Made common cause with those who found as much, 

Her parents, Pietro and Violante, — moved 

Heaven and earth to the rescue of all three. 

In four months' time, the time o' the parents' stay, 615 

.Arezzo was a-ringing, bells in a blaze, 

With the unimaginable story rife 

r the mouth of man. woman and child — to-wit 

My misdemeanor. First the lighter side. 

Ludicrous face of things. — ho\v very poor 620 

The Franceschini had become at la.st, 

The meanness and the misery of each shift 

To save a soldo,^ stretch and make ends meet. 

Next, the more hateful aspect, — how myself 

With cruelty beyond Caligula's - 625 

Had stripped and beaten,''robbed and murdered them, 

The good old couple, I decoyed, abused. 

Plundered and then cast out,' and haj^pily so. 

Since, — in due course the abominable comes, — 

Woe worth the poor young wife left lonely here! 630 

Repugnant in my person as my mind. 

I sought, — was ever heard of such revenge? 

— To lure and bind her to so cursed a couch. 

Such co-embrace with sulphur, snake and toad, 

That she w^as fain to rush forth, call the stones 635 

O" the common street to save her, not from hate 

Of mine merely, but . . . must I burn mv lips 

With the blister of the lie. '^ . . . the sat\T-love 

Of whom but my own brother, the young' priest, 

Too long enforced to lenten fare belike. 640 

Now tempted by the morsel tossed him full 

r the trencher where lay bread and herbs at best. 

Mark, this yourselves say! — this, none disallows, 

Was charged to me by the universal voice 

At the insHgation of my four-months' wife! — 645 

And then you ask "Such charges so preferred. 

' Soldo : about a penny. 2 Caligula : a Roman emperor, celebrated 

for his cruelties, murdered a.d 41. 



i6o THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

(Truly or falsely, here concerns us not) 

Pricked you to punish now if not before? — 

Did not the harshness double itself, the hate 

Harden?" I answer '' Have it your way and will!" 650 

Say my resentment grew apace: what then? 

Do you cry out on the marvel ? When I find 

That pure smooth egg which, laid within my nest. 

Could not but hatch a comfort to us all, 

Issues a cockatrice for me and mine, 655 

Do you stare to see me stamp on it ? Swans are soft : 

Is it' not clear that she you call my wife, 

That any wife of any husband, caught 

Whetting a sting like this against his breast, — 

Speckled with fragments of the fresh-broke shell, 660 

Married a month and making outcry thus, — 

Proves a plague-prodigy to God and man? 

She married : what was it she married for. 

Counted upon and meant to meet thereby ? 

" Love " suggests some one, " love, a little word 665 

Whereof we have not heard one syllable." 

So, the Pompilia, child, girl, wife, in one. 

Wanted the beating pulse, the rolling eye. 

The frantic gesture, the devotion due 

From Thyrsisi to Neaera!"-^ Guido's love — 670 

Why not Provencal roses in his shoe. 

Plume to his cap. and trio of guitars 

At casement, with a bravo close beside ? 
Good things all these are, clearly claimable 

When the fit price is paid the proper way. 675 

Had it been some friend's wife, now, threw her fan 

At my foot, with just this pretty scrap attached, 

" Shame, death, damnation — fall these as they may. 

So I find you, for a minute! Come this eve! " 

— Why, at such sweet self-sacrifice, — who knows? 680 

I might have fired up, found me at my post, 

Ardent from head to heel, nor feared catch cough. 

Nay, had some other friend's . . . say, daughter, tripped 

Upstairs and tumbled flat and frank on me. 

Bareheaded and barefooted, with loose hair 685 

And garments all at large, — cried "Take me thus! 

Duke So-and-So, the greatest man in Rome — 

To escape his hand and heart have I broke bounds, 

Traversed the town and reached you! "— then, indeed, 

The lady had not reached a man of ice ! 690 

I would have rummaged, ransacked at the word 

1 Thyrsis : a young Arcadian shepherd in " Neeera : a country maid mentioned in 

Virgil's Seventh Eclogue. Virgil's Eclogues III. and V. 



COUNT GUIDO FRAiYCESCHIXr. i6l 

Those old odd corners of an empty heart 

For remnants of dim love the long disused, 

And dustv Grumblings of romance I But here, 

We talk of just a marriage, if you please — 695 

The every-day conditions and no more ; 

Where do these bind me to bestow one drop 

Of blood shall dye my wife's true-love-knot pink? 

Pompilia was no pigeon, Venus' pet, 

That shutitled from between her pressing paps 700 

To sit on my rough shoulder. — but a hawk, 

I bought at a hawk's price and carried home 

To do hawk's service — at the Rotunda, say, 

WHiere, six o' the callow nestlings in a row. 

You pick and clioose and pay the price for such. 705 

I have paid my pound, await my penny's worth. 

So. hoodwink, starve and properly train my bird. 

And. should she prove a haggard, — twist her neck! 

Did I not pay my name and style, my hope 

And trust, my all? Through spending these amiss 710 

I am here ! 'T is scarce the gravity of the Court 

Will blame me that I never piped a tune. 

Treated mv falcon-gentle like my iinch. 

The obligation I incurred was just 

To practise mastery, prove my mastership : — 715 

Pompilia's duty was — submit herself. 

Afford me pleasure, perhaps cure my bile. 

Am I to teach my lords what marriage means, 

What God ordains thereby and man fulfils 

Who, docile to the dictate, treads the house? 720 

iMv lords have chosen the happier part with Paul 

And neither marry nor burn, — yet priestliness 

Can find a parallel to the marriage-bond 

In its own blessed special ordinance 

Whereof indeed was marriage made the type : 725 

The Church may show her insubordinate. 

As marriage her refractory. How of the Monk 

Who finds the claustral regimen too sharp 

After the first month's essay? What 's the mode 

With the Deacon who supports indifferently 730 

The rod o' the Bishop when he tastes its smart 

Full four weeks? Do you straightway slacken hold 

Of the innocents, the all-unwary ones 

Who, eager to profess, mistook their mind? — 

Remit a fast-day's rigor to the Monk 735 

Who fancied Francis' manna ^ meant roast quails, — 

Concede the Deacon sweet society, 

' Frauds' manna : the Franciscans depended upon alms for their food and living. 
M 



i62 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

He never thought the Levite-mle^ renounced, — 

Or rather prescribe short chain and sharp scourge 

Corrective of such peccant humors ? This — 740 

I take to be the Church's mode, and mine. 

If I was over-harsh, — the worse i' the wife 

Who did not win from harshness as she ought, 

Wanted the patience and persuasion, lore 

Of love, should cure me and console herself. 745 

Put case that I mishandle, flurry and fright 

My hawk through clumsiness in sportsmanship. 

Twitch out five pens where plucking one would serve — 

What, shall she bite and claw to mend the case ? 

And, if you find I pluck five more for that, 750 

Shall you weep " How he roughs the turtle there?" 

Such was the starting ; now of the further step. 

In lieu of taking penance in good part, 

The Monk, with hue and cry, summons a mob 

To make a bonfire of the convent, say, — 755 

And the Deacon's pretty piece of virtue ( save 

The ears o' the Court ! I try to save my head) 

Instructed by the ingenuous postulant, 

Taxes the Bishop with adultery, (mud 

Needs must pair off with mud, and filth with filth) — 760 

Such being my next experience. Who knows not — 

The couple, father and mother of my wife, 

Returned to Rome, published before my lords, 

Put into print, made circulate far and wide 

That they had cheated me who cheated them ? 765 

Pompilia, I supposed their daughter, drew 

Breath first 'mid Rome's worst rankness, through the deed 

Of a drab and a rogue, was by-blow bastard-babe 

Of a nameless strumpet, passed off, palmed on me 

As the daughter with the dowry. Daughter? Dirt 770 

O' the kennel! Dowry? Dust o' the street ! Nought more. 

Nought less, nought else but — oh — ah — assuredly 

A Franceschini and my very wife! 

Now take this charge as you will, for false or true, — 

This charge, preferred before your very selves 775 

Who judge me now, — I pray you, adjudge again, 

Classing it with the cheats or with the lies, 

By which category I suffer most! 

But of their reckoning, theirs who dealt with me 

In either fashion, — I reserve my word, 780 

Justify that in its place ; 1 am now to say, 

Whichever point o' the charge might poison most, 

1 Levite-rule = priest-rule. 



COUNT GUIDO FRANCESCHINT. ' 163 

Pompilia's duty was no doubtful one. 

You put the protestation in her mouth 

•■ Henceforward and forevermore, avaunt 785 

Ye fiends, who drop disguise and glare revealed 

In your own shape, no longer father mine 

Nor mother mine! Too nakedly you hate 

Me whom you looked as if you loved once, — me 

Whom, whether true or false, your tale now damns, 790 

Divulged thus to my public infamy. 

Private perdition, absolute overthrow. 

For, hate my husband to your hearts' content, 

I, spoil and prey of you from first to last, 

1 who have done you the blind service, lured 795 

The lion to your pitfall, — 1, thus left 

To answer for my ignorant bleating there, 

I should have been remembered and withdrawn 

From the first o' the natural fury, not flung loose 

A proverb and a by-word men will mouth. 800 

At the cross-way, in the corner, up and down 

Rome and Arezzo, — there, full in my face, 

If my lord, missing them and finding me. 

Content himself with casting his reproach 

To drop i' the street where such impostors die. 805 

Ah, but — that husband, what the wonder were! — 

If, far from casting thus away the rag 

Smeared with the plague his hand had chanced upon. 

Sewn to his pillow by Locusta's wile.' — 

Far from abolishing, root, stem and branch, 810 

The misgrowth of infectious mistletoe 

Foisted into his stock for honest graft, — 

If he repudiate not, renounce nowise. 

But, guarding, guiding me. maintain my cause 

By making it his own, (what other way?) 815 

— To keep my name for me, he call it his. 

Claim it of who would take it by their lie, — 

To save my wealth for me — or babe of mine 

Their lie was framed to beggar at the birth — 

He bid them loose grasp, give our gold again : 820 

If he become no partner with the pair 

Even in a game which, played adroitly, gives 

Its winner life's great wonderful new chance, — 

Of marrying, to-wit, a second time, — 

Ah, if he did thus, what a friend were he! 825 

Anger he might show, — who can stamp out flame 

Yet spread no black o' the brand? — yet, rough albeit 

» Locusia : the name of a notorious female typical of any poisoner. She helped Nero to 
poisoner at Rome in the first century; hence poison Britannicus. 



1 64 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

In the act, as whose bare feet feel embers scorch, 

What grace were his, what gratitude were mine!" 

Such protestation should hav€ been my wife's. 830 

Looking for this, do I exact too much? 

Why, here 's the, — word for word, so much, no more, — 

Avowal she made, her pure spontaneous speech 

To my brother the Abate at first blush. 

Ere the good impulse had begun to fade : ' 835 

So did she make confession for the pair. 

So pour forth praises in her own behalf. 

••Ay, the false letter," interpose my lords — 

" The simulated writing, — 't was a trick : 

You traced the signs, she merely marked the same, 840 

The product was not hers but yours." Alack, 

I want no more impulsion to tell truth 

From the other trick, the torture inside there! 

I confess all — let it be understood — 

And deny nothing! If I baftie you so, 845 

Can so fence, in the plenitude of right, 

That my poor lathen ^ dagger puts aside 

Each pass o' the Bilboa, - beats you all the same, — 

What matters inefficiency of blade? 

Mine and not hers the letter, — conceded, lords! 830 

Impute to me that practice! — take as proved 

I taught my wife her duty, made her see 

What it behoved her see and say and do. 

Feel in her heart and with her tongue declare. 

And, whether sluggish or recalcitrant, 855 

Forced her to take the right step, I myself 

Was marching in marital rectitude! 

Why who finds fault here, say the tale be true? 

Would not my lords commend the priest whose zeal 

Seized on the sick, morose or moribund, 860 

By the palsy-smitten finger, made it cross 

His brow correctly at the critical time? 

— Or answered for the inarticulate babe 

At baptism, in its stead declared the faith. 

And saved what else would perish unprofessed? 865 

True, the incapable hand may rally yet. 

Renounce the sign with renovated strength, — 

The babe may grow up man and Molinist, — 

And so Pompilia, set in the good path 

And left to go alone there, soon might see 870 

That too frank-forward, all too simple-straight 

1 Lathen = latten, a kind of brass or ^ Bilboa : a flexible-bladed cutlass named 

bronze. See note, I. 1231. from Bilboa, the Spanish adventurer and 

American discoverer. 



COUNT GUI DO FRANCESCHINI. 165 

Her step was, and decline to tread the rough, 

When here lay, tempting foot, the meadow-side, 

And there the coppice rang with singing-birds! 

Soon she discovered she was young and fair, 875 

That many in Arezzo knew as much. 

Yes, this next cup of bitterness, my lords. 

Had to begin go filling, drop by drop, 

Its measure up of full disgust for me, 

Filtered into by every noisome drain — ■ 880 

Society's sink toward which all moisture runs. 

Would not you prophesy — '• She on whose brow is stamped 

The note of the imputation that we know, — 

Rightly or wrongly mothered with a whore, — 

Such an one, to disprove the frightful charge, 885 

What will she but exaggerate chastity, 

Err in excess of wifehood, as it we.e. 

Renounce even levities permitted youth. 

Though not youth struck to age by a thunderbolt? 

Crv 'wolf i' the sheepfold, where 's the sheep dares bleat, 890 

Knowing the shepherd listens for a growl? " 

So you expect. How did the devil decree? 

Why, my lords, just the contrary of course! 

It was in the house from the window, at the church 

Y\om. the hassock, — where the theatre lent its lodge, 895 

Or staging for the public show left space, — 

That still Pompilia needs nust find herself 

Launching her looks forth, letting looks reply 

As arrows to a challenge , on all sides 

Ever new contribution to her lap, 900 

Till one day, what is it knocks at my clenched teeth 

But the cup full, curse-collected all for me? 

And I must needs driak, drink this gallant's praise. 

That minion's prayer, the other fop's reproach. 

And come at the dregs to — Caponsacchi! Sirs, 905 

I, — chin-deep in a marsh of misery. 

Struggling to extricate my name and fame 

And fortune from the marsh would drown them all, 

Mv face the sole unstrangled part of me, — 

I must have thi.s new gad-fly in that face, 9'° 

Must free me from the attacking lover too! 

Men say I batMed ungracefully enough — 

Was harsh, uncouth and ludicrous beyond 

The proper part o' the husband : have it so! 

Your lordships are considerate at least — 9' 5 

You order '.ne to speak in my defence 

Plainly, expect no quavering tuneful trills 

As when you bid a singer solace you, — 

Nor look that I shall give it, for a grace, 



r 



1 66 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Stans pede in uno : ^ — you remember well 920 

In the one case, H is a plainsong- too severe, 

This story of my wrongs, — and that I ache 

And need a chair, in the other. Ask you me 

Why. when I felt this trouble flap my face. 

Already pricked with every shame could perch, — 925 

When, with her parents, my wife plagued me too, — 

Why I enforced not exhortation mild 

To leave whore's-tricks and let my brows alone, 

With mulct of comfits, promise of perfume ? 

"Far from that! No you took the opposite course, 930 

Breathed threatenings, "-age and slaughter!" What you will! 

And the end has come, the doom is verily here. 

Unhindered by the threatening. See fate's flare 

Full on each face of the cead guilty three! 

Look at them well, and now, lords, look at this! 935 

Tell me : if on that day when I found first 

That Capsonsacchi thought the nearest way 

To his church was some half-mile round by my door, 

And that he so admired, shall I suppose. 

The manner of the swallows' come-and-go 940 

Between the props o' the window over-head, — 

That window happening to be my wife's, — 

As to stand gazing by the hour on high. 

Of May-eves, while she sat and let him smile, — 

If I, — instead of threatening, talking big, 945 

Showing hair-powder, a prodigious pinch. 

For poison in a bottle, — making believe 

At desperate doings with a bauble-sword. 

And other bugaboo-and-baby-work, — 

Had, with the vulgarest household implement, 950 

Calmly and quietly cut off, clean thro' bone 

But one joint of one finger of my wife. \ 

Saying " For listening to the serenade. 

Here's your ring-finger shorter a full third : 

Be certain I will slice away next joint, 955 

Next time that anybody underneath 

Seems somehow to be sauntering as he hopefi 

A flower would eddy out of your hand to his 

While you please fidget with the branch above 

O' the rose-tree in the terrace!" — had I done so, 960 

Why, there had followed a quick sharp scream, some pain, 

^ Stans pede in jino : "standing on one - Plainsong : simple early chants of the 

foot," a metaphor descriptive of anything done church, 
easily or off-hand; from Horace, " Satires," i. 



COUNT GUIDO FRAN-CESCHim. 167 

Much calling for plaister. damage to the dress, 

A somewhat sulky countenance next day, 

Perhaps reproaches, — but reflections too! 

I don't hear much of harm that Malchus did 965 

After the incident of the ear, my lords! 

Saint Peter took the efficacious way ; 

Malchus was sore but silenced for his life: 

He did not hang himself i' tlie Potter's Field 

Like Judas, who was trusted with the bag 970 

And treated to sops after he proved a thief. 

So. by this time, my true and obedient wife 

Might have been telling beads with a gloved hand; 

Awkward a little at pricking hearts and darts 

On sampler possibly, but well otherwise : 975 

Not where Rome shudders now to see her lie. 

I give that for the course a wise man takes ; 

I took the other however, tried the fool's, 

The lighter remedy, brandished rapier dread 

With cork-ball at the tip, boxed Malchus' ear 980 

Instead of severing the cartilage, 

Called her a terrible nickname, and the like. 

And there an end : and what was the end of that? 

What was the good effect o' the gen'de course? 

Why, one night I went drowsily to oed, 985 

Dropped asleep suddenly, not suddenly woke, 

But did wake with rough rousing and loud cry, 

To find noon in my face, a crowd in my room, 

Fumes in my brain, fire in my throat, my wife 

Gone God knows whither, — rifled vesture-chest, 990 

And ransacked money-coffer. •• What does it mean? " 

The servants had been drugged too, stared and yawned 

" It must be that our lady has eloped! " 

— '-Whither and with whom? " — "With whom but the Canon's 

self? 
One recognizes Caponsaccni there! " — • 995 

(By this time the admiring neighborhood 
Joined chorus round me while I rubbed my eyes) 
""T is months since their intelligence began, — 
A comedy the town was privy to, — 

He wrote and she wrote, she spoke, he replied, 1000 

And going in and outfyour house last night 
Was easy work for one ... to be plain with you . . . 
Accustomed to do both, at dusk and dawn 
When you were absent, — at the villa, you know,. 

Where husbandry required the master-mind. I005 

Did not you know ? Why, we all knew, you see! " 
And presently, bit by bit, the full and true 
Particulars of the tale were volunteered 



/ 



3 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

With all the breathless zeal of friendship — "Thus 

Matters were managed : at the seventh hour of night " . . . loio 

— " Later, at daybreak " . . . " Caponsacchi came "... 

— " While you and all your household slept like death, 
Drugged as your supper was with drowsy stuff" . . . 

— " And your own cousin Guillichini too — 

Either or both entered your dwelling-place, 1015 

Plundered it at their pleasure, made prize of all, 

Including your wife . . ." — " Oh, your wife led the way; 

Out of doors, on to the gate . . . " — " But gates are shut, 

In a decent town, to darkness and such deeds : 

They climbed the wall — your lady must be lithe — 1020 

At the gap, the broken hit . . . " — " Torrione, true! 

To escape the questioning guard at the proper gate, 

Clemente, where at the inn, hard by, 'the Horse,' 

Just outside, a calash in readiness 

Took the two principals, all alone at last, 1025 

To gate San Spirito, which overlooks the road, 

Leads to Perugia, Rome and liberty." 

Bit by bit thus made-up mosaic-wise. 

Flat lay my fortune, — tessellated floor. 

Imperishable tracery devils should foot 1030 

And frolic it on, around my broken gods. 

Over my desecrated hearth. 

So much 
For the terrible effect of threatening. Sirs! 
Well, this way 1 was shaken wide awake, 

Doctored and drenched, somewhat unpoisoned so. 1035 

Then, set on horseback and bid seek the lost, 
I started alone, head of me, heart of me 
Fire, and each limb as languid . . . ah, sweet lords. 
Bethink you ! — poison-torture, try persuade 

The next refractory Molinist with that ! . . . 1040 

Floundered thro' day and night, another day 
And vet another night, and so at last. 
As Lucifer kept falling to find hell, 
Tumbled into the court-yard of an inn 

At the end, and fell on whom I thought to lind, 1045 

Even Caponsacchi, — what part once was priest. 
Cast to the winds now with the cassock-rags. 
In cape and sword a cavalier confessed, , 

There stood he chiding dilatory grooms. 

Chafing that only horseflesh and no team . 1050 

Of eagles would supply the last relay, \ 

Whirl him along the league, the one post more 
Between the couple and Rome and liberty. 
'T was dawn, the couple were rested in a sort ; 
And though the lady, tired, — the tenderer sex, — 1055 



COUNT GCjWO FRANCESCHINT. 171 

Somebody forged the letters in our name! — " 

Both in a breath protested presently. 

Aha. Sacchetti again! — "Dame," — quoth the Duke, 

" What meaneth this epistle, counsel me, 

I pick from out thy placket and peruse, 11 50 

Wherein my page averreth thou art white 

And warm and wonderful "twixt pap and pap?" 

" Sir." laughed the Lady, '"t is a counterfeit! 

Thy page did never stroke but Dian's breast, 

The pretty hound I nurture for thy sake : 11 55 

To lie were losel, — by my fay, no more!" 

And no more say I too, and spare the Court. 

Ah, the Court! yes, I come to the Court's self; 

Such the case, so complete in fact and proof, 

I laid at the feet of law, — there sat my lords, 1 160 

Here sit they now, so may they ever sit 

In easier attitude than suits my haunch! 

In this same chamber did I bare my sores 

O' the soul and not the body. — shun no shame. 

Shrink from no probing of the ulcerous part, 1 165 

Since confident in Nature. — which is God. — 

That she who. for wise ends, concocts a plague. 

Curbs, at the right time, the plague's virulence too : 

Law renovates even Lazarus, — cures me! 

Caesar thou seekest? To Caesar thou shalt go! 1 170 

Caesar's at Rome: to Rome accordingly! 

The case was soon decided : both weights, cast 

r the balance, vibrate, neither kicks the beam. 

Here away, there away, this now and now that. 

To every one o" my grievances law gave 1 175 

Redress, could purblind eye but see the point. 

The wife stood a convicted runagate 

F'rom house and husband. — driven to such a course 

By what she somehow took for cruelty, 

(Oppression and imperilment of life — 1180 

Not that such things were, but that so they seemed : 

Therefore, the end conceded lawful, (since 

To save life there "s no risk should stay our leap) 

It follows that all means to the lawful end 

Are lawful likewise, — poison, theft and flight. 1 185 

As for the priest's part, did he meddle or make. 

Enough that he too thought life jeopardized ; 

Concede him then the color charity 

Casts on a doubtful course. — if blackish white 

Or whitish black, will charity hesitate? 1190 

What did he else but act the precept out, 



1/2 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Leave, like a provident shepherd, his safe flock 

To follow the single lamb and strayaway? 

Best hope so and think so, — that the ticklish time 

I' the carriage, the tempting privacy, the last 1195 

Somewhat ambiguous accident at the inn, 

— AH may bear explanation: may? then, must! 
The letters, — do they so incriminate? 

But what if the whole prove a prank o" the pen, 

Flight of the fancy, none of theirs at all, 1200 

Bred of the vapors of my brain belike. 

Or at worst mere exercise of scholar's-wit 

In the courtly Caponsacchi : verse, convict? 

Did not Catullus ^ write less seemly once? 

Yet doctiis and unblemished he abides. 1205 

Wherefore so ready to infer the worst? 

Still. I did righteously in bringing doubts 

For the law to solve, — take the solution now! 

" Seeing that the said associates, wife and priest. 

Bear themselves not without some touch of blame 1210 

— Else why the pother, scandal and outcry 
Which trouble our peace and require chastisement? 
We, for complicity in Pompilia's flight 

And deviation, and carnal intercourse 

With the same, do set aside and relegate 121 5 

The Canon Caponsacchi for three years 

At Civita in the neighborhood of Rome : 

And we consign Pompilia to the care 

Of a certain Sisterhood of penitents 

r the city's self, expert to deal with such." 1220 

Word for word, there 's your judgment! Read it, lords, 

Re-utter your deliberate penalty 

For the crime yourselves establish! Your award — 

Who chop a man's right-hand off at the wrist 

For tracing with forefinger words in wine 1225 

O' the table of a drinking-booth that bear 

Interpretation as they mocked the Church! 

— Who brand a woman black between the breasts 
For sinning by connection with a Jew : 

While for the Jew's self — pudency be dumb! 1230 

You mete out punishment such and such, yet so 
Punish the adultery of wife and priest! 
Take note of that, before the Molinists do. 
And read me right the riddle, since right must be! 
While I stood rapt away with wonderment, 1235 

Voices broke in upon my mood and muse. 
'Do you sleep?" began the friends at either ear, 

' Catullus : a learned but wanton poet, 87-47 B.C. 



COUNT GUI DO FRANCESCH/NI. 173 

"The case is settled, — you willed it should be so — 
None of our counsel, always recollect! 

With law's award, budge! Back into your place! 1240 

Your betters shall arrange the rest for you. 
* We Ml enter a new action, claim divorce : 
Your marriage was a cheat themselves allow : 
You erred i' the person, — might have married thus 
Your sister or your daughter unaware. 1245 

We '11 gain you, that way, liberty at least. 
Sure of so much by law's own showing. Up 
And off with you and your unluckiness — 
Leave us to bury the blunder, sweep things smooth! " 
I was in humble frame of mind, be sure! 1250 

I bowed, betook me to my place again. 
Station by station I retraced the road. 
Touched at this hostel, passed this post-house by, 
Where, fresh-remembered yet. the fugitives 
Had risen to the heroic stature : still — 1255 

"That was the bench they sat on, —there's tiie board 
They took the meal at, — yonder garden-ground 
They leaned across the gate of," — ever a word 
O' the Helen and the Paris, with " Ha! you 're he. 
The . . . much-commiserated husband?" step 1260 

By step, across the pelting, did I reach 
Arezzo, underwent the archway's grin. 
Traversed the length of sarcasm in the street. 
Found myself in my horrible house once more. 
And after a colloquy ... no word assists! 1265 

With the mother and the brothers, stiffened me 
Straight out from head to foot as dead man does, 
And, thus prepared for life as he for hell. 
Marched to the public Sqviare and met the world. 
Apologize for the pincers, palliate screws? 1270 

Ply me with such toy-trifles, I entreat! 
Trust who has tried both sulphur and sops-in-wine! 

I played the man as I best might, bade friends 

Put non-essentials by and face the fact. 

"What need to hang myself as you advise? 1275 

The paramour is banished, — the ocean's width. 

Or the suburb's length, — to Ultima Thule,' say. 

Or Proxima Civitas,- what 's the odds of name 

And place? He 's banished, and the fact "s the thing. 

Why should law banish innocence an inch? 1280 

' Ultima Thule : the name given by the an- - Proxima Civitas : the nearest city, 

cients to the farthest land known to the north, 
supposed to be either Iceland or the Orkneys. 



174 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Here 's guilt then, what else do I care to know ? 

The adulteress lies imprisoned, — whether in a well 

With bricks above and a snake for company, 

Or tied by a garter to a bed-post, — much 

1 mind what's little, — least's enough and to spare! 1285 

The little iillip on the coward's cheek 

Serves as though crab-tree cudgel broke his pate. 

Law has pronounced there 's punishment, less or more : 

And I take note o' the fact and use it thus — 

For the first flaw in the original bond, 1290 

I claim release. My contract was to wed 

The daughter of Pietro and Violante. Both 

Protest they never had a child at all. 

Then I have never made a contract : good! 

Cancel me quick the thing pretended one. 1295 

1 shall be free. What matter if hurried over 

The harbor-boom by a great favoring tide. 

Or the last of a spent ripple that lifts and leaves? 

The Abate is about it. Laugh who wins! 

You shall not laugh me out of faith in law! 1300 

I listen, through all your noise, to Rome!" 

Rome spoke. 
In three months letters thence admonished me, 
"Your plan for the divorce is all a mistake. 
It would hold, now, had you, taking thought to wed 
Rachel of the blue eye and golden hair, 1305 

Found swarth-skinned Leah cumber couch next day.: 
But Rachel, blue-eyed golden-haired aright, 
Proving to be only Laban's child, not Lot's, 
Remains vours all the same for ever more. 
No whit to the purpose is your plea: you err 1310 

r the person and the quality — nowise 
In the individual, — that's the case in point! 
You go to the ground, — are met by a cross-suit 
For separation, of the Rachel here. 

From bed and board, — she is the injured one, 1315 

You did the wrong and have to answer it. 
As for the circumstance of imprisonment 
And color it lends to this your new attack. 
Never fear, that point is considered too! 

The durance is already at an end ; 1320 

The convent-quiet preyed upon her health. 
She is transferred now to her parents' house 
— No-parents, when that cheats and plunders you. 
But parentage again confessed in full, 

When such confession pricks and plagues you more — 1325 
As now — for, this their house is not the house 
In Via Vittoria wherein neighbors' watch 



COUNT GUI DO FRANCESCHINI. 175 

Might incommode the freedom of your wife, 

But a certain villa smothered up in vines 

At the town's edge by the gate i' the Pauline Way, 1330 

Out of eye-reach, out of ear-shot, little and lone, 

Whither a friend, — at Civita, we hope, 

A good half-dozen-hours' ride off. — might, some eve, 

Betake himself, and whence ride back, some morn, 

Nobody the wiser: but be that as it may, 1335 

Do not afflict your brains with trifles now. 

You have still three suits to manage, all and each 

Ruinous truly should the event play false. 

It is indeed the likelier so to do. 

That brother Paul, your single prop and stay, 1340 

After a vain attempt to bring the Pope 

To set aside procedures, sit himself 

And summarily use prerogative. 

Afford us the infallible finger's tact 

To disentwine your tangle of affairs, 1345 

Paul, — finding it moreover past his strength 

To stem the irruption, bear Rome's ridicule 

Of . . . since friends must speak ... to be round with you . . . 

Of the old outwitted husband, wronged and wroth, 

Pitted against a brace of juveniles — 1350 

A brisk priest who is versed in Ovid's art ^ 

More than his Summa,'- and a gamesome wife 

Able to act Corinna^ without book. 

Beside the waggish parents who played dupes 

To dupe the duper — (and truly divers scenes 1355 

Of the Arezzo palace, tickle rib 

And tease eye till the tears come, so we laugh ; 

Nor wants the shock at the inn its comic force, 

And then the letters and poetry — inerum sal!*) 

— Paul, finally, in such a state of things, 1360 

After a brief temptation to go jump 

And join the fishes in the Tiber, drowns 

Sorrow another and a wiser way : 

House and goods, he has sold all off, is gone. 

Leaves Rome, — whether for France or Spain, who knows ? 1 365 

Or Britain almost divided from our orb. 

You have lost him anyhow." 

Now, — I see my lords 
Shift in their seat. — would I could do the same! 
They probably please e.xpect my bile was moved 

^ Ovid's art : Ovid wrote a book on " The ^ Corinna : Ovid's mistress Julia was 

Art of Love." celebrated by him under the name of Coriiina. 

2 Suntma : the " Summa Theologiae," by * iMeruin sal : pure salt. 

St. Thomas .\quinas, from which the priests 
of the Roman Church study their theology. 



176 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

To purpose, nor much blame me : now, they judge, 1370 

The fiery titillation urged my flesh 

Break through the bonds. By your pardon, no, sweet Sirs! 

I got such missives in the public place ; 

When I sought home, — with such news, mounted stair 

And sat at last in the sombre gallery, 1375 

('T was Autumn, the old mother in bed betimes. 

Having to bear that cold, the finer frame 

Of her daughter-in-law had found intolerable — 

The brother, walking misery away 

O' the mountain-side with dog and gun belike) 1380 

As I supped, ate the coarse bread, drank the wine 

Weak once, now acrid with the toad's-head-squeeze. 

My wife's bestowment, — I broke silence thus : 

" Let me, a man, manfully meet the fact. 

Confront the worst o' the truth, end, and have peace! 1385 

I am irremediably beaten here, — 

The gross illiterate vulgar couple, — bah! 

Why, they have measured forces, mastered mine, 

Made me their spoil and prey from first to last. 

They have got my name, — 't is nailed now fast to theirs, 1390 

The child or changeling is anyway my wife ; 

Point by point as they plan they execute. 

They gain all, and I lose all — even to the lure 

That led to loss, — they have the wealth again 

They hazarded awhile to hook me with, 1395 

Have caught the fish and find the bait entire : 

They even have their child or changeling back 

To trade with, turn to account a second time. 

The brother presumably might tell a tale 

Or give a warning, — he, too, flies the field, 1400 

And with him vanish help and hope of help. 

Tliey have caught me in the cavern where I fell, 

Covered my loudest cry for human aid 

With this enormous paving-stone of shame. 

Well, are we demigods or merely clay? 1405 

Is success still attendant on desert? 

Is this, we live on, heaven and the final state. 

Or earth which means probation to the end ? 

Why claim escape from man's predestined lot 

Of being beaten and bafiled? — God's decree, 141 o 

In which I, bowing bruised head, acquiesce. 

One of us Franceschini fell long since 

r the Holy Land, betrayed, tradition runs. 

To Paynims by the feigning of a girl 

He rushed to free from ravisher, and found 141 5 

Lay safe enough with friends in ambuscade 

Who flayed him while she clapped her hands and laughed : 



COUNT GUI DO FRAiXCESCHIJVr. 177 

Let me end, falling by a like device. 
It will not I)€ so liard. I am the last 

O" my line whicli will not siifter any more. 1420 

I have attained to my full fiftv vear's, 
(About the average of us all, 't is said, 
Though it seems longer to the unlucky man) 
— Lived through my share of life ; let all end here. 
Me and the house and grief and shame at once. 1425 

Friends my informants, — I can bear your blow!" 
And I believe 't was in no unmeet match 
For the stoic's mood, with something like a smile, 
That, when morose December roused me next, 
I took into my hand, broke seal to read 1430 

The new epistle from Rome. •• All to no use! 
Whatever the turn next injury take." smiled L 
" Here's one has chosen his part and knows his cue. 
I am done with, dead now ; strike away, good friends I 
Are the three suits decided in a trice.'' 1435 

Against me, — there 's no question! How does it go? 
Is the parentage of my wife demonstrated 
Infamous to her wish.^ Parades she now 
Loosed of tlie cincture that so irked the loin? 
Is the last penny extracted from my purse 1440 

To mulct me for demanding the first pound 
Was promised in return for value paid? 
Has the priest, with nobody to court beside, 
Courted the Muse in exile, hitched my hap 
Into a rattling ballad-rhyme which, bawled 1445 

At tavern-doors, wakes rapture everywhere. 
And helps cheap wine down throat this Christmas time, 
Beating the bagpipes ? Any or all of these ! 
As well, good friends, you cursed my palace here 
To its old cold stone face, — stuck vour cap for crest 1450 
Over the shield that "s extant in the'Square, — 
Or spat on the statue's cheek, the impatient world 
Sees cumber tomb-top in our familv church : 
Let him creep under covert as I shall do, 
Half below-ground already indeed. Good-bye! 1455 

My brothers are priests, and childless so ; that 's well — 
And, thank God most for this, no child leave I — 
None after me to bear till his heart break 
The being a Franceschini and my son! " 

" Nay," said the letter, " but you have just that! 1460 

A babe, your veritable son and heir — 

Lawful. — 't is only eight months since your wife 

Left you, — so, son and heir, your babe was born 

Last Wednesday in the villa, ^- you see the cause 

N 



178 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

For quitting Convent without beat of drum, 1465 

Stealing a hurried march to this retreat 

That 's not so savage as the Sisterhood 

To slips and stumbles : Pietro's heart is soft, 

Violante leans to pity"s side, — the pair 

Ushered you into life a bouncing boy : 1470 

And he 's already hidden away and safe 

From any claim on him you mean to make — 

They need him for themselves, — don't fear, they know 

The use o" the bantling, — the nerve thus laid bare 

To nip at, new and nice, with finger-nail! " 1475 

Then 1 rose up like fire, and fire-like roared. 

What, all is only beginning not ending now? 

The worm which wormed its way from skin through flesh 

To the bone and there lay biting, did its best, — 

What, it goes on to scrape at the bone's self, 1480 

Will wind to inmost marrow and madden me? 

There 's to be yet my representative, 

Another of the name shall keep displayed 

The flag with the ordure on it, brandish still 

The broken sword has served to stir a jakes? 1485 

Who will he be, how will you call the man? 

A Franceschini. — when who cut my purse. 

Filched my name, hemmed me round, hustled me hard 

As rogues at a fair some fool they strip i' the midst. 

When these count gains, vaunt pillage presently : — 149° 

But a Caponsacchi, oh, be very sure ! 

When what demands its tribute of applause 

Is the cunning and impudence o' the pair of cheats, 

The lies and lust o' the mother, and the brave 

Bold carriage of the priest, worthily crowned 1495 

By a witness to his feat i' the following age, — 

And how this three-fold cord could hook and fetch 

And land leviathan that king of pride! 

Or say, by some mad miracle of chance. 

Is he indeed my flesh and blood, this babe? 1500 

Was it because fate forged a link at last 

Betwixt my wife and me. and both aHke 

Found we had henceforth some one thing to love, 

Was it when she could damn my soul indeed 

She unlatched door, let all the devils o' the dark 1505 

Dance in on me to cover her escape ? 

Why then, the surplusage of disgrace, the spilth 

Over and above the measure of infamy. 

Failing to take effect on my coarse flesh 

Seasoned with scorn now, saturate with shame, — 1510 

Is saved to instil on and corrode the brow, 



COUNT GUI DO FRANCESCHINI. 179 

The baby-softness of my first-born child — 

The child I had died to see though in a dream, 

The cliild I was bid strike out for, beat the wave 

And batrie the tide of troubles where 1 swam, 15 15 

So 1 might touch shore, lay down life at last 

At the feet so dim and distant and divine 

Of the apparition, as 't were Mary's Babe 

Had held, through night and storm, the torch aloft, — 

Born now in very deed to bear this brand 1520 

On forehead and curse me who could not save! 

Rather be the town talk true, square's jest, street's jeer 

True, my own inmost heart's confession true. 

And he the priest's bastard and none of mine! 

Ay, there was cause for Hight, swift flight and sure! 1525 

The husband gets unruly, breaks all bounds 

When he encounters some familiar face. 

Fashion of feature, brow and eyes and lips 

Where he least looked to find them, — time to fly! 

This bastard then, a nest for him is made, 1530 

As the manner is of vermin, in my flesh : 

Shall I let the filthy j)est buzz, flap and sting, 

Busy at my vitals and, nor hand nor foot 

Lift, but let be, lie still and rot resigned? 

No, I appeal to God. — what says Himself, 1535 

How lessons Nature when I look to learn? 

Why. that I am alive, am still a man 

With brain and heart and tongue and right-hand too — 

Nay. even with friends, in such a cause as this, 

To right me if I fail to take my right. 1540 

No more of law ; a voice beyond the law 

Enters my heart, Qiiis est pro Do)ninof^ 

Myself, in my own Vittiano, told the tale 

To my own serving-people summoned there : 

Told the first half of it, scarce heard to end 1545 

By judges who got done with judgment quick 

And clamored to go execute her 'best — 

Who cried " Not one of us that dig your soil 

And dress your vineyard, prune your olive-trees. 

But would have brained the man debauched our wife, 1550 

And staked the wife whose lust allured the man, 

And paunched the Duke, had it been possible. 

Who ruled the land yet barred us such revenge!" 

I fixed on the first whose eyes caught mine, some four 

Resolute youngsters with the heart still fresh, 1555 

Filled my purse with the residue o' the coin 

' Quis est pro Domino : who is on the Lord's side ? 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Uncaught-up by my wife whom haste made bhnd, 

Donned the first rough and rural garb I found, 

Took whatsoever weapon came to hand, 

And out we flung and on we ran or reeled 1560 

Romeward. I have no memory of our way, 

Only that, when at intervals the cloud 

Of horror about me opened to let in life, 

I listened to some song in the ear, some snatch 

Of a legend, relic of religion, stray 1 565 

Fragment of record very strong and old 

Of the first conscience, the anterior right, 

The God's-gift to mankind, impulse to quench 

The antagonistic spark of hell and tread 

Satan and all his malice into dust, 1570 

Declare to the world the one law, right is right. 

Then the cloud re-encompassed me, and so 

I found myself, as on the wings of winds, 

Arrived : I was at Rome on Christmas Eve. 

Festive bells — everywhere the Feast o' the Babe, 1575 

Joy upon earth, peace and good will to man! 

I am baptized. 1 started and let drop 

The dagger. " Where is it. His promised peace? " 

Nine days o' the Birth-Feast did I pause and pray 

To enter into no temptation more. 1580 

1 bore the hateful house, my brother's once, 

Deserted, — let the ghost of social joy 

Mock and make mouths at me from empty room 

And idle door that missed the master's step, — 

Bore the frank wonder of incredulous eyes. 1585 

As my own people watched without a word, 

Waited, from where they huddled round the hearth 

Black like all else, that nod so slow to come. 

1 stopped my ears even to the inner call 

Of the dread duty, only heard the song 159° 

'• Peace upon earth," saw nothing but the face 

O' the Holy Infant and the halo there 

Able to cover yet another face 

Behind it, Satan's which I else should see. 

But, day by day, joy waned and withered off: 1595 

The Babe's face, premature with peak and pine. 

Sank into wrinkled ruinous old age. 

Suffering and death, then mist-like disappeared, 

And showed only the Cross at end of all. 

Left nothing more to interpose 'twixt me 1600 

And the dread duty : for the angels' song, 

'* Peace upon earth," louder and louder pealed 

" O Lord, how long, how long be unavenged ? " 



COiWT GUIDO FRAXCESCtllXI. i8i 

On the ninth day, this grew too much for man. 

I started up — " Some end must be! " At once, 1605 

Silence : then, scratching Hke a death-watch-tick, 

Slowly within my brain was syllabled, 

'• One more concession, one decisive way 

And but one, to determine thee the truth, — 

This way, in fine, I whisper in thy ear: 1610 

Now doubt, anon decide, thereupon act!" 

*• That is a way, thou whisperest in my ear! 

I doubt, I will decide, then act," said I — 

Then beckoned my companions : '• Time is come! " 

And so, all yet uncertain save the will 1615 

To do right, and the daring aught save leave 

Right undone, I did find myself at last 

r the dark before the villa with my friends, 

And made the experiment, the final test, 

Ultimate chance that ever was to be 1620 

For the wretchedness inside. I knocked, pronounced 

The name, the 4iredetermined touch for truth, 

'• What welcome for the wanderer? Open straight — " 

To the friend, physician, friar upon his rounds. 

Traveller belated, beggar lame and blind .^ 1625 

No, but — " to Caponsacchi! " And the door 

Opened. 

And then, — why, even then, I think, 
r the minute that confirmed my worst of fears. 
Surely, — I pray God that I think aright! — 
Had but Pompilials self, the tender thing 1630 

Who once was good and pure, was once my lamb 
And lay in my bosom, had the well-known'shape 
Fronted me in the door-way, — stood there faint 
With the recent pang perhaps of giving birth 
To what might, though by miracle, seem my child,— 1635 
Nay more, I will say, had even the aged fool 
Pietro, the dotard, in whom folly and age 
Wrought, more than enmity or malevolence. 
To practise and conspire against my peace, — 
Had either of these but opened, I had paused. 1640 

But it was she the hag, she that brought hell 
For a dowry with her to her husband's house, 
' She the mock-mother, she that made the match 
And married me to perdition, spring and source 
O" the fire inside me that boiled up from heart 1645 

To brain and hailed the Fury gave it birth, — 
Violante Comparini. she it was. 
With the old grin amid the wrinkles yet. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Opened : as if in turning from the Cross. 

With trust to keep the sight and save my soul, 1650 

I had stumbled, first thing, on the serpent's head 

Coiled with a leer at foot of it. 

There was the end! 
Then was I rapt away by the impulse, one 
Immeasurable everlasting wave of a need 
To abolish that detested life. 'T was done : 1655 

You know the rest and how the folds o' the thing, 
Twisting for help, involved the other two 
More or less serpent-like : how I was mad, 
Blind, stamped on all, the earth-worms with the asp. 
And ended so. 

You came on me that night, 1660 

Your officers of justice, — caught the crime 
In the first natural frenzy of remorse ? 
Twenty miles off, sound sleeping as a child 
On a cloak i' the straw which promised shelter first. 
With the bloody arms beside me, — was it not so.'' 1665 

Wherefore not? Why, how else should I be found? 
I was my own self, had my sense again. 
My soul safe from the serpents. I could sleep : 
Indeed and, dear my lords, I shall sleep now, 
Spite of my shoulder, in five minutes' space, 1670 

When you dismiss me. having tmth enough! 
It is but a few days are passed, I find. 
Since this adventure. Do you tell me. four? 
Then the dead are scarce quiet where they lie, 
Old Pietro, old Violante, side by side 1675 

At the church Lorenzo, — oh, they know it well! 
So do I . But my wife is still alive. 
Has breath enough to tell her story yet. 
Her way, which is not mine, no doubt at all. 
And Caponsacchi, you have summoned him. — 16S0 

Was he so far to send for? Not at hand? 
I thought some few o' the stabs were in his heart, 
Or had not been so lavish : less had served. 
Well, he too tells his story, — florid prose 
As smooth as mine is rough. You see. my lords, 16S5 

There will be a lying intoxicating smoke 
Born of the blood. — confusion probably. — 
For lies breed lies — but all that rests with you! 
The trial is no concern of mine ; with me 

The main of the care is over: I at least 1690 

Recognize who took that huge burthen off. 
Let me begin to live again. I did 
God's bidding and man's duty, so, breathe free ; 
Look you to the rest ! I heard Himself prescribe, 



COUNT GU/DO FRANCESCHINr. 183 

That great Physician, and dared lance the core 1695 

Of tlie bad ulcer ; and the rage abates, 

I am myself and whole now: I prove cured 

By the eyes that see, the ears that hear again. 

The limbs that have relearncd their youthful play, 

The healthy taste of food and feel of clothes 1700 

And taking to our common life once more, 

All that now urges my defence from death. 

The willingness to live, what means it else? 

Before, — but let the very action speak! 

Judge for yourselves, what life seemed worth to me 1705 

Who, not by proxy but in person, pitched 

Head-foremost into danger as a fool 

That never cares if he can swim or no — 

So he but find the bottom, braves the brook. 

No man omits precaution, quite neglects 17 10 

Secrecy, safety, schemes not how retreat. 

Having schemed he might advance. Did I so scheme? 

Why, with a warrant which "t is ask and have. 

With horse thereby made mine without a word, 

I had gained the frontier and slept safe that night. 171 5 

Then, my companions, — call them what you please, 

Slave or 3tipendiary, — what need of one 

To me whose right-hand did its owner's work? 

Hire an assassin yet expose yourself? 

As well buy glove and then thrust naked hand 1720 

r the thorn-bush. No, the wise man stays at home. 

Sends only agents out, with pay to earn : 

At home, when they come back, — he straight discards 

Or else disowns. Why use such tools at all 

When a man's foes are of his house, like mine, 1725 

Sit at his board, sleep in his bed? Why noise. 

When there's the acquetta and the silent way? 

Clearly my life was valueless. 

But now 
Health is returned, and sanity of soul 

Nowise indifferent to the body's harm. 1730 

I find the instinct bids me save my life ; 
My wits, too, rally round me ; I pick up 
And use the arms that strewed tlie ground before, 
Unnoticed or spurned aside : I take my stand. 
Make my defence. God shall not lose a life 1735 

May do Him further service, while I speak 
And you hear, you my judges and last hope! 
You are the law : 't is to the law I look. 
I began life by hanging to the law. 
To the law it is I hang till life shall end. 1740 



54 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

My brother made appeal to the Pope, 't is true, 

To stay proceedings, judge my cause himself 

Nor trouble law, — some fondness of conceit 

That rectitude, sagacity sufficed 

The investigator in a case like mine, 1745 

Dispensed with the machine of law. The Pope 

Knew better, set aside my brother's plea 

And put me back to law, — referred the cause 

Adjiidices iiieos,^ — doubtlessly did well. 

Here, then, I clutch my judges, — I claim law — 1750 

Cry, bv the higher law whereof your law 

O' the land is humbly representative, — 

Cry, on what point is it, where either accuse, 

I fail to furnish you defence ? I stand 

Acquitted, actually or virtually, 1 755 

By every intermediate kind of court 

That takes account of right or wrong in man, 

Each unit in the series that begins 

With God's throne, ends with the tribunal here. 

God breathes, not speaks, his verdicts, felt not heard, 1760 

Passed on successively to each court I call 

Man's conscience, custom, manners, all that make 

More and more eifort to promulgate, mark 

God's verdict in determinable words. 

Till last come human jurists — solidify 1765 

Fluid result, — what 's fixable lies forged. 

Statute, — the residue escapes in fume, 

Yet hangs aloft, a cloud, as palpable 

To the finer sense as word the legist '•^ welds. 

Justinian's Pandects^ only make precise i77o 

What simply sparkled in men's eyes before. 

Twitched in their brow or quivered on their lip, 

Waited the speech they called but would not come. 

These courts then, whose decree your own confirms, — 

Take my whole life, not this last act alone, ^775 

Look on it by the light reflected thence! 

What has Society to charge me with? 

Come, unreservedly, — favor none nor fear, — 

I am Guido Franceschini, am I not? 

You know the courses I was free to take? 1780 

I took just that which let me serve the Church, 

I gave it all my labor in body and soul 

Till these broke down i' the service. "Specify?" 

Well, my last patron was a Cardinal. 

^Adjudicesmeos: to my judges. ^Justinian's Pandects: the digest of 

2 Legist : a lawyer. Roman jurists made by order of Justinian in 

the sixth century. 



COUNT GUI DO FRANCESCHim. 185 

I left him unconvicted of a fault — 1785 

Was even helped, by way of gratitude, 

Into the new life that I left him for, 

This very misery of the marriage, — he 

Made it, kind soul, so far as in him lay — 

Signed the deed where you yet may see his name. 1790 

He is gone to his reward, — dead, being my friend 

Who could have helped here also. — that, of course! 

So far, there's my acquittal, I suppose. 

Then comes the marriage itself — no question, lords, 

Of the entire validity of that! 1795 

In the e.xtremity of distress, 't is true. 

For after-reasons, furnished abundantly, 

I wished the thing invalid, went to you 

Only some months since, set you duly forth 

My wrong and prayed your remedy, that a cheat 1800 

Should not have force to cheat my whole life long. 

*' Annul a marriage? "T is impossible! 

Though ring about your neck Idc brass not gold. 

Needs must it clasp, gangrene you all the same! " 

Well, let me have the benefit, just so far, 1805 

O' the fact announced, — my wife then is mv wife, 

I have allowance for a husband's right. 

I am charged with passing right's clue bound. — such acts 

As I thought just, my wife called cruelty. 

Complained of in due form, — convoked no court 1810 

Of common gossipr)', but took her wrongs — 

And not once, but so long as patience served — 

To the town's top, jurisdiction's pride of place. 

To the Archbishop and the Governor. 

These heard her charge with my reply, and found 1815 

That futile, this sufficient : they dismissed 

The hysteric querulous rebel, and confirmed 

Authority in its wholesome exercise. 

They, with directest access to the facts. 

" — Ay, for it was their friendship favored you, 1820 

Hereditary alliance against a breach 

r the social order: prejudice for the name 

Of Franceschini ! " — So I hear it said : 

Rut not here. You, lords, never will you say 

" Such is the nullity of grace and truth. 1825 

Such the corruption of the faith, such lapse 

Of law, such warrant have the Molinists 

For daring reprehend us as they do, — 

That we pronounce it just a common case, 

Two dignitaries, each in his degree 1830 

First, foremost, this the spiritual head, and that 

The secular arm o' the body politic. 



i86 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Should, for mere wrongs' love and injustice' sake, 

Side with, aid and abet in cruelty 

This broken beggarly noble, — bribed perhaps 1835 

By his watered wine and mouldy crust of bread — 

Rather than that sweet tremulous flower-like wife 

Who kissed their hands and curled about their feet 

Looking the irresistible loveliness 

In tears that takes man captive, turns" . . . enough! 1840 

Do you blast your predecessors? What forbids 

Posterity to trebly blast yourselves 

Who set the example and instruct their tongue? 

You dreaded the crowd, succumbed to the popular cry, 

Or else, would nowise seem defer thereto 1845 

And yield to public clamor though i' the right! 

You ridded your eye of my unseemliness, 

The noble whose misfortune wearied you, — 

Or, what 's more probable, made common cause 

With the cleric section, punished in myself 1850 

Maladroit uncomplaisant laity. 

Defective in behavior to a priest 

Who claimed the customary partnership 

r the house and the wife. Lords, any lie will serve! 

Look to it, — or allow me freed so far! 1855 

Then I proceed a step, come with clean hands 

Thus far, re-tell the tale told eight months since. 

The wife, you allow so far, I have not wronged, 

Has fled my roof, plundered me and decamped 

In company with the priest her paramour: i860 

And I gave chase, came up with, caught the two 

At the wayside inn where both had spent the night, 

Found them in flagrant fault, and found as well, 

By documents with name and plan and date, 

The fault was furtive then that's flagrant now, 1865 

Their intercourse a long established crime. 

I did not take the license law's self gives 

To slay both criminals o' the spot at the time, 

But held my hand, — preferred play prodigy 

Of patience which the world calls cowardice, 1870 

Rather than seem anticipate the law 

And cast discredit on its organs, — you. 

So, to your bar I brought both criminals, 

And made my statement : heard their counter-charge, 

Nay, — their corroboration of my tale, 1875 

Nowise disputing its allegements, not 

I' the main, not more than nature's decency 

Compels men to keep silence in this kind, — 

Only contending that the deeds avowed 



COUNT GUI DO FRAXCESCHINI. 1S7 

Would take another color and bear excuse. 18S0 

You were to judge between us ; so you did. 

You disregard the excuse, you breathe away 

The color of innocence and leave guilt black, 

"Guilty " is the decision of the court, ^ 

And that I stand in consequence untouched, 1S85 

One white integrity from head to heeL 

Not guilty? Why then did you punish them? 

True, punishment has been inade(|uate — 

'T is not I only, not my friends that joke, 

My foes that jeer, who echo "inadequate" — 1890 

For, by a chance that comes to help for once, 

The same case simultaneously was judged 

At Arezzo, in the province of the Court 

Where the crime had its beginning but not end. 

They then, deciding on but half o' the crime, 1895 

The effraction, robbery, — features of the fault 

I never cared to dwell upon at Rome, — 

What was it they adjudged as penalty 

To Pompilia, — the one criminal o' the pair 

Amenable to their judgment, not the priest 1900 

Who is Rome's? Why, just imprisonment for life 

r the Stinche.^ There was Tuscany's award 

To a wife that robs her husband: you at Rome — 

Having to deal with adultery in a wife 

And, in a priest, breach of the priestly vow — 1905 

Give gentle sequestration for a month 

In a manageable Convent, then release. 

You call imprisonment, in the very house 

O" the very couple, which the aim and end 

Of the culprits' crime was — just to reach and rest 1910 

And there take solace and defy me : well, — 

Tiiis difference 'twixt their penalty and yours 

Is immaterial : make your penalty less — 

Merely that she should henceforth wear black gloves 

And white fan, she who wore the opposite — ^9^5 

Why, all the same the fact o' the thing subsists. 

Reconcile to your conscience as you may. 

Be it on your own heads, you pronounced but half 

O' the penalty for heinousness like hers 

And his, that pays a fault at Carnival 1920 

Of comfit-pelting past discretion's law, 

Or accident to handkerchief in Lent 

Which falls perversely as a lady kneels 

Abruptly, and but half conceals her neck! 

I acquiesce for my part : punished, though 1925 

' Sttnche : a prison. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

By a pin-point scratch, means guilty : guilty means 
— What have I been but innocent hitherto? 
Anyhow, here the offence, being punished, ends. 

Ends? — for you deemed so, did you not, sweet lords? 

That was throughout the veritable aim 1930 

O' the sentence light or heavy, — to redress 

Recognized wrong? You righted me, I think? 

Well then, — what if I, at this last of all. 

Demonstrate you, as my whole pleading proves. 

No particle of wrong received thereby 1935 

One atom of right? — that cure grew worse disease? 

That in the process you call "justice done " 

All along you have nipped away just inch 

By inch the creeping climbing length of plague 

Breaking my tree of life from root to branch, 1940 

And left me, after all and every act 

Of your interference, — lightened of what load? 

At liberty wherein? Mere words and wind! 

" Now I was saved, now I should feel no more 

The hot breath, find a respite from fixed eye 1945 

And vibrant tongue! " Why, scarce your back was turned, 

There was the reptile, that feigned death at first. 

Renewing its detested spire and spire 

Around me, rising to such heights of hate 

That, so far from mere purpose now to crush 1950 

And coil itself on the remains of me. 

Body and mind, and there flesh fang content, 

Its aim is now to evoke life from death, 

Make me anew, satisfy in my son 

The hunger I may feed but never sate, 1955 

Tormented on to perpetuity, — 

My son, whom, dead, I shall know, understand, 

Feel, hear, see, never more escape the sight 

In heaven that 's turned to hell, or hell returned 

(So rather say) to this same earth again, — i960 

Moulded into the image and made one. 

Fashioned of soul as featured like in face, 

First taught to laugh and lisp and stand and go 

By that thief, poisoner and adulteress 

I call Pompilia, he calls . . . sacred name, 1965 

Be unpronounced, be unpolluted here! 

And last led up to the glory and prize of hate 

By his . . . foster-father, Caponsacchi's self, 

The perjured priest, pink of conspirators, 

Tricksters and knaves, yet polished, superfine, 1970 

Manhood to model adolescence by! 

Lords, look on me, declare. — when, what I show, 



COCXT or /DO FRA.VCESCH/N/. 189 

Is notliing more nor less than what you deemed 

And doled me out for justice. — what did you say? 

For reparation, restitution and more, — 1975 

Will you not thank, praise, bid me to your breasts 

For having done the thing you thought to do, 

And thoroughly trampled out sin's life at last? 

I have heightened phrase to make your soft speech serve. 

Doubled the blow you but essayed to strike. 1980 

Carried into effect your mandate here 

That else had fallen to ground : mere duty done. 

Oversight of the master just supplied 

By zeal i' the servant. I, being used to serve. 

Have simply . . . what is it they charge me with? 1985 

Blackened again, made legible once more 

Your own decree, not permanently writ, 

Rightly conceived but all too faintly traced. 

It reads efficient, now, comminatory, 

A terror to the wicked, answers so^ 1990 

The mood o' the magistrate, the mind of law. 

Absolve, then, me, law's mere executant! 

Protect your own defender, — save me. Sirs! 

Give me my life, give me mv liberty. 

My good name and my civic rights again! 1995 

It would be too fond, too complacent play 

Into the hands o' the devil, should we lose 

The game here, I for God : a soldier-bee 1 

That yields his life, exenterate- with the stroke 

O' the sting that saves the hive. I need that life. 2000 

Oh, never fear! I 11 find life plenty use 

Though it should last five years more, aches and all! 

For. first thing, there 's the' mother's age to help — 

Let her come break her heart upon my breast 

Not on the blank stone of my nameless tomb! 2005 

The fugitive brother has to be bidden back 

To the old routine, repugnant to the tread. 

Of daily suit and service to the Church, — 

Thro' gibe and jest, those stones that Shimei flung! 

Ay. and the spirit-broken youth at home. 2010 

The awe-struck altar-mi nistrant. shall make 

Amends for faith now palsied at the source, 

Shall see truth yet triumphant, justice yet 

Avictor in the battle of this world! 

Give me — for last, best gift — my son again. 2015 

Wliom law makes mine. — I take him at your word, 

' Soldier-bee : a bee that fights for the - Exenterate : disembowelled, 

protection of the hive and sacrifices his life 
in the act of using his sting. 



190 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Mine be he, by miraculous mercy, lords !r. 

Let me lift up his youth and innocence . . 

To purify my palace, room by room .: 

Purged of the memories, lend from his fright brow 2020 

Light to the old proud paladin my sire 

Shrunk now for shame into the darkest shade 

O' the tapestry, showed him once and shrouds him now! 

Then may we, — strong from that rekindled smile, — 

Go forward, face new times, the better day. 2025 

And when, in times made better through your brave 

Decision now, — might but Utopia be! — 

Rome rife with honest women and strong men, 

Manners reformed, old habits back once more. 

Customs that recognize the standard worth, — 2030 

The wholesome household rule in force again. 

Husbands once more God's representative. 

Wives like the typical Spouse once more, and Priests 

No longer men of Belial, with no aim 

At leading silly women captive, but 2035 

Of rising to such duties as yours now, — 

Then will I set my son at my right-hand 

And tell his father's story to this point, 

Adding *' The task seemed superhuman, still 

I dared and did it, trusting God and law : 2040 

And they approved of me : give praise to both! " 

And if, for answer, he shall stoop to kiss 

My hand, and peradventure start thereat, — 

1 engage to smile " That was an accident 

r the necessary process, — just a trip 2045 

O' the torture-irons in their search for truth, — 

Hardly misfortune, and no fault at all." 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHL 191 

VI. 

GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI. 

[Book VI. gives the story from Caponsacchi's point of view, and, moreover, car- 
ries with every word the direct impress of his personality, so that tlie verity of his 
account, the essential quahty of Fompilia's influence upon his cliaracter, and the 
inmost nature both of his service to her and his love for her are clearly and con- 
vincingly revealed.] 

Answer you, Sirs? Do I understand aright? 

Have patience? In this sudden smotce from hell, — 

So things disguise themselves. — I cannot see 

My own hand held thus broad before my face 

And know it again. Answer you? Then that means 5 

Tell over twice what I, the first time, told 

Six months ago : 't was here, I do believe. 

Fronting you same three in this very room. 

I stood and told you : yet now no one laughs. 

Who then . . . nay, dear my lords, but laugh you did, 10 

As good as laugh, what in a judge we style 

Laughter — no levity, nothing indecorous, lords! 

Only, — I think 1 apprehend the mood : 

There was the blameless shrug, permissible smirk. 

The pen's pretence at play with the pursed mouth, 15 

The titter stifled in the hollow palm 

Which rubbed the eyebrow and caressed the nose. 

When I first told my tale : they meant, you know, 

" The sly one, all this we are bound believe! 

Well, he can say no other than what he says. 20 

We have been young, too. — come, there "s greater guilt! 

Let him but decently disembroil himself. 

Scramble from out the scrape nor move the mud, — 

We solid ones may risk a finger-stretch!" 

And now you sit as grave, stare as aghast 25 

As if I were a phantom : now 't is — "• Friend, 

Collect yourself! " — no laughing matter more — 

" Counsel the Court in this extremity. 

Tell us again!" — tell that, for telling which, 

I got the jocular piece of punishment, 30 

Was sent to lounge a little in the place 

Whence now of a sudden here you summon me 

To take the intelligence from just — your lips! 

You, Judge Tommati, who then tittered most, — 



192 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

That she I helped eight months since to escape 35 

Her husband, was retaken by the same. 

Three days ago, if I have seized your sense, — 

(I being disallowed to interfere. 

Meddle or make in a matter none of mine. 

For you and law were guardians quite enough 40 

O' the innocent, without a pert priest's help) — 

And that he has butchered her accordingly. 

As she foretold and as myself believed, — 

And, so foretelling and believing so, 

We were punished, both of us, the merry way : 45 

Therefore, tell once again the tale! For what? 

Pompilia is only dying while I speak! 

Why does the mirth hang fire and miss the smile? 

My masters, there 's an old book, you should con 

For strange adventures, applicable yet, 50 

'T is stuffed with. Do you know that there was once 

This thing : a multitude of worthy folk 

Took recreation, watched a certain group 

Of soldiery intent upon a game, — 

How first they wrangled, but soon fell to play, 55 

Threw dice, — the best diversion in the world. 

A word in your ear, — they are now casting lots, 

Ay, with that gesture quaint and cry uncouth. 

For the coat of One ^ murdered an hour ago! 

I am a priest. — talk of what I have learned. 60 

Pompilia is bleeding out her life belike. 

Gasping away the latest breath of all. 

This minute, while I talk — not while you laugh ? 

Yet, being sobered now, what is it you ask 

By way of explanation? There ''s the fact! 65 

It seems to fill the universe with sight 

And sound, ■ — from the four corners of this earth 

Tells itself over, to my sense at least. 

But you may want it lower set i' the scale. — 

Too vast, too close it clangs in the ear. perhaps ; 70 

You'd stand back just to comprehend it more. 

Well then, let me, the hollow rock, condense 

The voice o' the sea and wind, interpret you 

The mystery of this murder. God al)ove! 

It is too paltry, such a transference 75 

O' the storm's roar to the cranny of the stone! 

This deed, you saw begin — why does its end 
Surprise you? Why should the event enforce 

• Casting lots . . . for the coat of One : Matthew xxvii. 35. 



GIL/SEP J '/•; C.l/'OA 'S.l CCHI. 1 93 

The lesson, we ourselves learned, she and I, 

From the first o' the fact, and taught you, all in vain? 80 

This Guido from whose throat you took my grasp, 

Was this man to be favored, now, or feared, 

Let do his will, or have his will restrained, 

In the relation with Pompilia? Say! 

Did any other man need interpose 85 

— Oil, though first comer, though as strange at the work 

As fribble must be, coxcomb, fool that 's near 

To knave as, say, a priest who fears the world — 

Was he bound brave the peril, save the doomed, 

Or go on, sing his snatch and pluck his flower, 90 

Keep the straight path and let the victim die? 

I held so ; you decided otherwise. 

Saw no such peril, therefore no such need 

To stop song, loosen flower, and leave path. Law, 

Law was aware and watching, would suffice, 95 

Wanted no priest's intrusion, palpably 

Pretence, too manifest a subterfuge! 

Whereupon I, priest, coxcomb, fribble and fool, 

Ensconced me in my corner, thus rebuked, 

A kind of culprit, over-zealous hound loo 

Kicked for his pains to kennel ; I gave place. 

To you, and let the law reign paramount : 

I left Pompilia to your watch and ward, 

And now you point me — there and thus she lies! 

Men, for the last time, what do you want with me? 105 

Is it, — you acknowledge, as it were, a use, 

A profit in employing me? — at length 

I may conceivably help the august law? 

I am free to break the blow, next hawk that swoops 

On next dove, nor miss much of good repute? no 

Or what if this your summons, after all, 

Be but the form of mere release, no more. 

Which turns the key and lets the captive go? 

I have paid enough in person at Civita, 

Am free, — what more need I concern me with? 115 

Thank you! I am rehabilitated then, 

A very reputable priest. But she — 

The glory of life, the beauty of the world," 

The splenflor of heaven, . . . well. Sirs, does no one move? 

Do I speak ambiguously? The glory, I say, 120 

And the beauty. I say, and splendor, still say I, 

Who. priest and trained to live my whole life long 

On beauty and splendor, solely at their source, 

God, — have thus recognized my food in her, 

You tell me, that's fast dying while we talk, 125 



194 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Pompilia! How does lenity to me, 

Remit one death-bed pang to her ? Come, smile ! 

The proper wink at the hot-headed youth 

Who lets his soul show, through transparent words, 

The mundane love that 's sin and scandal too! 130 

You are all struck acquiescent now. it seems : 

It seems the oldest, gravest signor here. 

Even the redoubtable Tommati, sits 

Chop-fallen, — understands how law might take 

Service like mine, of brain and heart and hand, 135 

In good part. Better late than never, law 

You understand of a sudden, gospel too 

Has a claim here, may possibly pronounce 

Consistent with my priesthood, worthy Christ, 

That I endeavored to save Pompilia? 

Then, 140 

You were wrong, you see : that 's well to see, though late : 
That 's all we may expect of man, this side 
The grave : his good is — knowing he is bad : 
Thus will it be with us when the books ope 
And we stand at the bar on judgment-day. 145 

Well then, I have a mind to speak, see cause 
To relume the quenched flax by this dreadful light. 
Burn my soul out in showing you the truth. 
I heard, last time I stood here to be judged. 
What is priest's-duty, — labor to pluck tares 150 

And weed the corn of Molinism ; let me 
Make you hear, this time, how, in such a case, 
Man, be he in the priesthood or at plough, 
Mindful of Christ or marching step by step 
With . . . what 's his style, the other potentate 155 

Who bids have courage and keep honor safe, 
Nor let minuter admonition tease? — 
How he is bound, better or worse, to act. 
Earth will not end through this misjudgment, no! 
For you and the others like you sure to come, 160 

Fresh work is sure to follow, — wickedness 
That wants withstanding. Many a man of blood. 
Many a man of guile will clamor yet. 
Bid you redress his grievance, — as he clutched 
The prey, forsooth a stranger stepped between, 165 

And there 's the good gripe in pure waste! My part 
Is done ; i' the doing it, 1 pass away 
Out of the world. 1 want no more with earth. 
Let me, in heaven's name, use the very snuff 
O' the taper in one last spark shall show truth 170 

For a moment, show Pompilia who was true! 
\ 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI. 195 

Not for her sake, but yours : if she is dead, 
Oh, Sirs, she can be loved by none of you 
Most or least priestly! Saints, to do us good, 
Must be in heaven, \ seem to understand : 175 

We never find them saints before, at least. 
Be her first prayer then presently for you — 
She has done the good to me . . . „ , . , 

What is all this? 

There. I was born, have lived, shall die, a fool! 

This is a foolish outset : — might with cause 180 

Give color to the very lie o' the man. 

The murderer, — make as if I loved his wife. 

In the wav he called love. He is the fool there! 

Why. had there been in me the touch of taint. 

I had picked up so much of knaves'-policy 185 

As hide it. keep one hand pressed on the place 

Suspected of a spot would damn us both. 

Or no. not her! — not even if any of you 

Dares think that I. i' the face of death, her death 

That "s in mv eyes and ears and brain and heart, 190 

Lie. — if he does, let him ! I mean to say. 

So he stop there, stay thought from smirching her 

The snow-white soul that angels fear to take 

Untenderly. But, all the same, I know 

I too am taintless, and I bare my breast. ^95 

You can't think, men as you are, all of you. 

But that, to hear thus suddenly such an end 

Of such a wonderful white soul, that comes 

Of a man and murderer calling the white black, 

Must shake me, trouble and disadvantage. Sirs, 

Only seventeen! 

Why, good and wise you are ! 
You might at the beginning stop my mouth : 
So, none would be to speak for her, that knew. 
I talk impertinently, and you bear, 
All the same. This it is to have to do 
With honest hearts : they easily may err. 
But in the main they wish well to the truth. 
You are Christians ; somehow, no one ever plucked 
A rag, even, from the body of the Lord, 
To wear and mock with, but, despite himself. 
He looked the greater and was the better. Yes, 
I shall go on now. Does she need or not 
1 keep calm? Calm I '11 keep as monk that croons 
Transcribing battle, earthquake, famine, plague, 
From parchment to his cloister's chronicle. 215 

Not one word more from the point now! 



200 



210 



196 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

I begin. 
Yes, I am one of your body and a priest. 
Also I am a younger son o' thie House 
Oldest now, greatest once, in my birth-town 
Arezzo, I recognize no equal there — 220 

(I want all arguments, all sorts of arms 
That seem to serve. — use this for a reason, wait!) 
Not therefore thrust into the Church, because 
O' the piece of bread one gets there. We were first 
Of Fiesole, that rings still with the fame 225 

Of Capo-in-Sacco ^ our progenitor : 
When Florence ruined Fiesole, our folk 
Migrated to the victor-city, and there 
Flourished, — our palace and our tower attest, 
In the Old Mercato,'- — this was years ago. 230 

Four hundred, full, — no, it wants fourteen just. 
Our arms are those of Fiesole itself. 
The shield quartered with white and red : a branch 
Are the Salviati of us, nothing more. 

That were good help to the Church? But better still — 235 
Not simply for the advantage of my birth 
I' the way of the world, was I proposed for priest ; 
But because there 's an illustration, late 
r the da}', that 's loved and looked to as a saint 
Still in Arezzo, he was bishop of 240 

.Sixty years since : he spent to the last doit 
His bishop's-revenue among the poor. 
And used to tend the needy and the sick, 
IJarefoot, because of his humility. 

He it was, ^ — when the Granduke Ferdinand^ 245 

Swore he would raze our city, plough the place 
And sow it with salt, because we Aretines 
Had tied a rope about the neck, to hale 
The statue of his father from its base 

For hate's sake, — he availed by prayers and tears 250 

To pacify the Duke and save the town. 
This was my father's father's brother. You see, 
For his sake, how it was I had a right 
To the self-same office, bishop in the tgg. 
So, grew i' the garb and prattled in the school, 255 

Was made expect, from infancy almost. 
The proper mood 0' the priest ; till time ran by 
And brought the day when 1 must read the vows, 

1 Capo-in-Sacco : '^Mercato: market (see preceding note). 

" Already had Caponsacco to the Market '^Ferdinand : Ferdinand II., Grand-duke 

From Fiesole descended." of Tuscany, 1621-1670, one of the Medici. 
(Dante's " Paradiso," xvi. 121. )i 



X 



.x\ 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI. 197 

Declare the world renounced and undertake 

To become priest and leave probation, — leap 260 

Over the ledge into the other life. 

Having gone trippingly hitherto up to the height 

O'er thewan water, just a vow to read! 

1 stopped short awe-struck. " How shall holiest flesh 

Engage to keep such vow inviolate, 265 

How much less mine? I know myself too weak. 

Unworthy! Choose a worthier stronger man! '' 

And the very Bishop smiled and stopped my mouth 

In its mid-protestation. " Incapable? 

Qualmish of conscience? Thou ingenuous boy! 270 

Clear up the clouds and cast thy scruples far! 

I satisfy thee there "s an easier sense 

Wherein to take such vow than suits the first 

Rouo-h rigid reading. Mark what makes all smooth, 

Nav, has been even a solace to myself ! 275 

The Jews who needs must, in their synagogue. 

Utter sometimes the holy name of God, 

A thing their superstition boggles at, 

Pronounce aloud the ineffable sacrosanct,^ — 

How does their shrewdness help them ? In this wise ; 280 

Another set of sounds they substitute. 

Jumble so consonants and vowels — how 

Should I know? — that there grows from out the old 

Quite a new word that means the very same — 

And o'er the hard place slide they with a smile. 285 

Giuseppe Maria Caponsacchi mine. 

Nobody wants you in these latter days 

To prop the Church by breaking your back-bone, — 

As the necessary way was once, we know. 

When Diocletian - flourished and his like. 290 

That building of the buttress-work was done 

By martyrs and confessors : let it bide. 

Add not' a brick, but, where you see a chink, 

Stick in a sprig of ivy or root a rose 

Shall make amends and beautify the pile ! 295 

We profit as you were the painfullest 

O' the martyrs, and you prove yourself a match 

For the crudest confessor ever was, 

If you march boldlv up and take your stand 

Where their blood'soaks, their bones yet strew the soil, 300 

And cry ' Take notice. I the young and free 

' Sacrosanct : the Hebrews, regarding ^ Diocletian : the Rom.in Emperor (284- 
the Sacred Name as unspeakable, substitute 305) under whom the last persecutions of the 
Adonai for Jahwi in reading. Christians were held. 



1 98 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And well-to-do i' the world, thus leave the world, 

Cast in my lot thus with no gay young world 

But the grand old Church : she tempts me of the two! ' 

Renounce the world? Nay. keep and give it us! 305 

Let us have you, and boast of what you bring. 

We want the pick o' the earth to practise with, 

Not its offscouring, halt and deaf and blind 

In soul and body. There's a rubble-stone 

Unfit for the front o' the building, stutf to stow 310 

In a gap behind and keep us weather-tight ; 

There's porphyry for the prominent place. Good lack! 

Saint Paul has had enough and to spare, I trow, 

Of ragged run-away Onesimus : ^ 

He wants the right-hand with the signet-ring 315 

Of King Agrippa,- now, to shake and use. 

I have a heavy scholar cloistered up. 

Close under lock and key, kept at his task 

Of letting Fenelon ^ know the fool he is. 

In a book I promise Christendom next Spring. 320 

Why, if he covets so much meat, the clown. 

As a lark's wing next Friday, or, any day, 

Diversion beyond catching his own fleas. 

He shall be properly swinged, I promise him. 

But you, who are so quite another paste 325 

Of a man, — do you obey me? Cultivate 

Assiduous that superior gift you have 

Of making madrigals — (who told me ? Ah !) 

Get done a Marinesque Adoniad * straight 

With a pulse o' the blood a-pricking, here and there, 330 

That I may tell the lady ' And he 's ours ! ' " 

So I became a priest : those terms changed all, 
I was good enough for that, nor cheated so ; 
I could live thus and still hold head erect. 
Now you see why I may have been before 335 

A fribble and coxcomb, yet, as priest, break word 
Nowise, to make you disbelieve me now. 
I need that you should know my truth. Well, then, 
According to prescription did I live, 

— Conformed myself, both read the breviary 340 

And wrote the rhymes, was punctual to my place 
r the Pieve,^ and as diligent at my post 

'^ Onesinuis : Philemon, verses ii, i8. " Adone " of Giovanni Battista Marino (or 

^ Agripfia : Acts xxvii. Marini), published in 1623, and very popular 

3 Fhielon : the French preacher and arch- during the seventeenth century. 
bishop of Canibrai (1651-1751) who adopted ^ Pieve : Sta. Maria della Pieve, one of 

the mystical doctrines of Molinos. the principal parish churches in Arezzo. 
* A Marinesque Adoniad : alluding to the 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCH/. 199 

Where beauty and fashion rule. I throve apace, 

Sub-deacon, Canon, the authority 

For dehcate play at tarocs,' and arbiter 345 

O" the magnitude of fan-mounts : all the while 

Wanting no whit the advantage of a hint 

Benignant to the promising pupil, — thus : 

" Enough attention to the Countess now. 

The young one ; 't is her mother rules the roast, 350 

We know where, and puts in a word : go pay 

Devoir to-morrow morning after mass! 

Break that rash promise to preach. Passion-week! 

Has it escaped you the Archbishop grunts 

And snuffles when one grieves to tell his Grace 355 

No soul dares treat the sujbect of the day 

Since his own masterly handling it (ha, ha!) 

Five years ago, — when somebody could help 

And touch up an odd phrase in time of need. 

(He, he!) — and somebody helps you, my son! 360 

Therefore, don't prove so indispensable 

At the Pieve, sit more loose i' the seat, nor grow 

A fixture by attendance morn and eve! 

Arezzo 's just a haven midway Rome — 

Rome 's the eventual harbor, — make for port, 365 

Crowd sail, crack cordage ! And yOur cargo be 

A polished presence, a genteel manner, wit 

At will, and tact at every pore of you! 

I sent our lump of learning. Brother Clout, 

And Father Sloucli, our piece of piety, 370 

To see Rome and try suit the Cardinal. 

Thither they clump-clumped, beads and book in hand, 

And ever since 't is meat for man and maid 

How both flopped down, prayed blessing on bent pate 

Bald many an inch beyond the tonsure's need, 375 

Never once dreaming, the two moony dolts, 

There's nothing moves his Eminence so much 

As — far from all this awe at sanctitude — 

Heads that wag, eyes that twinkle, modified mirth 

At the closet-lectures on the Latin tongue 380 

A lady learns so much by, we know where. 

Why, body o' Bacchus, you should crave his rule 

For pauses in the elegiac couplet, chasms 

Permissible only to Catullus!- There! 

Now go to duty : brisk, break Priscian's head ^ 385 

* Tarocs : a card game. ^ Break Priscian's head : break the 
' Catullus : the Latin poet, especially dis- rules of classical Latin grammar, on which 
tinguished for the elegance and polish of his Priscian was the most famous ancient author- 
verse (87-47 B.C.). ity. 



200 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

By reading the day's office — there 's no help. 
You Ve Ovid ^ in your poke to plaster that ; 
Amen 's at the end of all : then sup with me ! " 



Well, after three or four years of this life, 
In prosecution of my calling, I 390 

Found myself at the theatre one night 
With a brother Canon, in a mood and mind 
Proper enough for the place, amused or no : 
When I saw enter, stand, and seat herself 
A lady, young, tall, beautiful, strange and sad. 395 

It was as when, in our cathedral once, 
As I got yawningly through matin-song, 
I s?i\\ facchini- bear a burden up. 
Base it on the high-altar, break away 

A board or two, and leave the thing inside 400 

Lofty and lone : and lo, when next I looked. 
There was the Rafael ! I was still one stare. 
When — '' Nay, I '11 make her give you back your gaze " — 
Said Canon Conti ; and at the word he tossed 
A paper-twist of comtits to her lap, 405 

And dodged and in a trice was at my back 
Nodding from over my shoulder. Then she turned, 
Looked our way, smiled the beautiful sad strange smile. 
" Is not she fair? 'T is my new cousin,''' said he : 
" The fellow lurking there i' the black o' the box 410 

Is Guido, the old scapegrace : she 's his wife, 
Married three years since: how his Countship sulks! 
He has brought little back from Rome beside, 
After the bragging, bullying. A fair face. 
And — they do say — a pocketful of gold 415 

When he can worry both her parents dead. 
I don't go much there, for the chamber 's cold 
And the coffee pale. I got a turn at first 
Paying my duty : I observed they crouched 
— The two old frightened family spectres — close 420 

In a corner, each on each like mouse on mouse 
r the cat's cage : ever since, I stay at home. 
Hallo, there 's Guido, the black, mean and small. 
Bends his brows on us — please to bend your own 
On the shapely nether limbs of Light-skirts there 425 

By way of a diversion! I was a fool 
To fling the sweetmeats. Prudence, for God's love ! 

^ Ovid : distinctively a secular favorite ^ Facchini : porters, 
among Latin poets (43 B.C.-18 a.d.) because 
of his love themes and tales of Pagan gods. 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI. 201 

To-morrow I '11 make my peace, e'en tell some fib. 
Try if 1 can't find means to take you there." 

That night and next day did the gaze endure, 430 

Burnt to my brain, as sunbeam thro" shut eyes. 

And not once changed the beautiful sad strange smile. 

At vespers Conti leaned beside my seat 

r the choir, — part said, part sung — "/;; ex-cel-sis — 

All 's to no purpose ; I have louted low, 435 

But he saw you staring — quia sub — don't incline 

To know you nearer : him we would not hold 

For Hercules. — the man would lick your shoe 

If you and certain efficacious friends 

Managed him warily, — but tliere "s the wife : 440 

Spare her, because he beats her, as it is. 

She 's breaking her heart quite fast enough — jam tti — 

So, be you rational and make amends 

With little Light-skirts yonder — in seciila 

Secii-lo-o-o-o-rumy Ah, you rogue! Every one knows 445 

What great dame she makes jealous : one against one, 

Play, and win both ! " 

Sirs, ere the week was out, 
I saw and said to myself " Light-skirts hides teeth 
Would make a dog sick, — the great dame shows spite 
Should drive a cat mad : 't is but poor work this — 450 

Counting one's fingers till the sonnet's crowned. 
I doubt much if Marino - really be 
A better bard than Dante after all. 
"T is more amusing to go pace at eve. 

r the Duomo, — watch the day's last gleam outside 455 

Turn, as into a skirt of God's own robe, 
Those lancet-windows' jewelled miracle. — 
Than go eat the Archbishop's ortolans. 
Digest his jokes. Luckily Lent is near: 

Who cares to look will find me in my stall 460 

At the Pieve, constant to this faith at least — 
Never to write a canzonet "^ any more." 

So, next week, 't was my patron spoke abrupt. 

In altered guise. "Young man, can it be true 

That after all your promise of sound fruit, 565 

You have kept away from Countess young or old 

^ Inexcelsis . . . secu?a seculorum : the "Adonis" already referred to (1. 323), and 
gloria chanted at the end of each Psalm; in who was famed in his day (1569) and patron- 
Latin in Roman Catholic churches, in Eng- ized by cardinals and kings. 
lish in the Anglican church. •'■ Canzonet : a one-, two-, or three-part 

' Marino : the Italian poet, who wrote the song. 



32 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And gone play truant in church all day long? 

Are you turning Molinist? " I answered quick : 

" Sir, what if 1 turned Christian? It might be. 

The fact is, I am troubled in my mind, 470 

Beset and pressed hard by some novel thoughts. 

This your Arezzo is a limited world ; 

There 's a strange Pope, — \ is said, a priest who thinks. 

Rome is the port, you say : to Rome I go. 

I will live alone, one does so in a crowd, 475 

And look into my heart a little." " Lent 

Ended," — I told friends — " I shall go to Rome." 

One evening 1 was sitting in a muse 
Over the opened " Summa," ^ darkened round 
By the mid-March twilight, thinking how my life 480 

Had shaken under me, — broke short indeed 
And showed the gap 'twixt what is, what should be, — 
And into what abysm the soul may slip. 
Leave aspiration here, achievement there. 
Lacking omnipotence to connect extremes — 485 

Thinking moreover . . . oh, thinking, if you like, 
How utterly dissociated was 1 
A priest and celibate, from the sad strange wife 
Of Guido, — just as an instance to the point, 
Nought more, — how I had a whole store of strengths 490 
Eating into my heart, which craved employ. 
And she, perhaps, need of a finger's help, — 
And yet there was no way in the wide world 
To stretch out mine and so relieve myself, — 
How when the page o' the Summa preached its best, 495 

Her smile kept glowing out of it, as to mock 
The silence we could break by no one word, — 
There came a tap without the chamber-door, 
And a whisper; when I bade who tapped speak out. 
And, in obedience to my summons, last 500 

— ~^In glided a masked muffled mystery. 

Laid lightly a letter on the opened book, 
Then stood with folded arms and foot demure, 
Pointing as if to mark the minutes' flight. 

I took the letter, read to the effect 505 

That she, I lately flung the comfits to. 

Had a warm heart to give me in exchange, 

And gave it, — loved me and confessed it thus, 

And bade me render thanks by word of mouth, 

Going that night to such a side o' the house 510 

' Summa : the " Suinma Theologiae," or Summary of Theology, of Thomas Aquinas. 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHl. 203 

Where the small terrace overhangs a street 
Blind and deserted, not the street in front : 
Her husband being away, the surly patch, 
At his villa of Vittiano. 



" And you ? " — I asked : 
" What may you be ? "^ " Count Guide's kind of maid — 515 
Most of us have two functions in his house. 
We all hate him, the lady suffers much. 
'T is just we show compassion, furnish help, 
Specially since her choice is fixed so well. 
What answer may I bring to cheer the sweet 520 

Pompilia?" 

Then I took a pen and wrote 
" No more of this I That you are fair, I know : 
But other thoughts now occupy my mind. 
I should not thus have played the insensible 
Once on a time. What made you, — may one ask, — 525 

Marry your hideous husband? T was a fault, 
And now you taste the fruit of it. Farewell." 



" There! " smiled I as she snatched it and was gone — 

" There, let the jealous miscreant, — Guido's self. 

Whose mean soul grins through this transparent trick. — 530 

Be baulked so far, defrauded of his aim! 

What fund of satisfaction to tlie knave, 

Had I kicked this his messenger down stairs, 

Trussed to the middle of her impudence, 

And set his heart at ease so! No, indeed! 535 

There 's the reply which he shall turn and twist 

At pleasure, snuff at till his brain grow drunk. 

As the bear does when he finds a scented glove 

That puzzles him. — a hand and yet no hand, 

Of other perfume than his own foul paw! 540 

Last month, I had doubtless chosen to play the dupe, 

Accepted the mock-invitation, kept 

The sham appointment, cudgel beneath cloak. 

Prepared myself to pull the appointer's self 

Out of the window from his hiding-place 545 

Behind the gown of this part-messenger 

Fart-mistress who would personate the wife. 

Such had seemed once a jest permissible : 

Now I am not i' the mood." 

Back next morn brought 
The messenger, a second letter in hand. 550 



204 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

" You are cruel, Thyrsis, and Myrtilla^ moans 

Neglected but adores you, makes request 

For mercy : why is it you dare not come? 

Such virtue is scarce natural to your age. 

You must love some one else ; I hear you do, 555 

The Baron's daughter or the Advocate's wife. 

Or both, — all 's one, would you make me the third — 

I take the crumbs from table gratefully 

Nor grudge who feasts there. 'Faith, I blush and blaze! 

Yet if I break all bounds, there 's reason sure. 560 

Are you determinedly bent on Rome? 

I am wretched here, a monster tortures me : 

Carry me with you! Come and say you will! 

Concert this very evening! Do not write! 

I am ever at the window of my room ■ 565 

Over the terrace, at the Ave.- Come!" 

I questioned — lifting half the woman's mask 

To let her smile loose. •• So, you gave my line 

To the merry lady ? " •' She kissed off the wax, 

And put what paper was not kissed away, 570 

In her bosom to go burn : but merry, no! 

She wept all night when evening brought no friend. 

Alone, the unkind missive at her breast ; 

Thus Philomel,^ the thorn at her breast too. 

Sings" . . . "Writes this second letter?" "Even so! 575 

Then she may peep at vespers forth?" — " What risk 

Do we run o' the husband ? " — "Ah. — no risk at all ! 

He is more stupid even than jealous. Ah — 

That was the reason? Why, the man 's away! 

Beside, his bugbear is that friend of yours, 580 

Fat little Canon Conti. He fears him, 

How should he dream of you? I told you truth : 

He goes to the villa at Vittiano — 't is 

The time when Spring-sap rises in the vine — 

Spends the night there. And then his wife 's a child : 585 

Does he think a child outwits him? A mere child : 

Yet so full grown, a dish for any duke. 

Don't quarrel longer with such cates, but come! " 

1 wrote " In vain do you solicit me. 

I am a priest : and you are wedded wife, 590 

Whatever kind of brute your husband prove. 

1 Thyrsis mid MyrtiHa : common names ^ Philovicl : Philomela's sorrows are sung 

in pastoral poetry for shepherd and maid in by the nightingale into whose form the maiden 

love with each other. passed, according to the fable referred to 

- Ave : Ave Maria or" Hail Mary," etc , here. See also, Shakespeare, " Rape of Lu- 

the prayer used at evening. crece," 1135. 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHI. 205 

I have scruples, in short. Yet should you really show 
Sign at the window . . . but nay, best be good! 
My thoughts are elsewhere." " Take her that ! " 

"Again 
Let the incarnate meanness, cheat and spy, 595 

Mean to the marrow of him, make his heart 
His food, anticipate hell's worm once more! 
Let him watch shivering at the window — ay, 
And let this hybrid, this his light-of-love 

And lackey-of-lies. — a sage economy. — 600 

Paid with embracings for the rank brass coin, — 
Let her report and make him chuckle o'er 
The break-down of my resolution now. 
And lour at disappointment in good time! 
— So tantalize and so enrage by turns, 605 

L'ntil the two fall eacli on the other like 
Two famished spiders, as the coveted fly 
That toys long, leaves their net and them at last!" 
And so the missives followed thick and fast 
For a month, say. — I still came at every turn 6ro 

On the soft sly adder, endlong 'neath my tread. 
I was met i' the street, made sign to in the church, 
A slip was found i' the door-sill, scribbled word 
'Twi.xt page and page o' the prayer-book in my place. 
A crumpled thing dropped even before my feet, 615 

Pushed through the blind, above the terrace-rail. 
As I passed, by day, the very window once. 
And ever from corners would be peering up 
The messenger, with the self-same demand 
"Obdurate still, no flesh but adamant? 620 

Nothing to cure the wound, assuage the throe 
O' the sweetest lamb that ever loved a bear?" 
And ever my one answer in one tone — 
'- Go your ways, temptress ! Let a priest read, pray, 
Unplagued of vain talk, visions not for hmi! 625 

In the end, you '11 have your will and ruin me!" 

One day, a variation : thus I read : 

"You have gained little by timidity. 

My husband has found out my love at length. 

Sees cousin Conti was the stalking-horse, 63c 

And you the game he covered, poor fat soul! 

My liusband is a formidable foe. 

Will stick at nothing to destroy you. Stand 

Prepared, or better, run till you reach Rome! 

I bade you visit me, when the last place 635 

My tyrant would have turned suspicious at. 

of cared to seek you in, was . . . why say, where? 



2o6 THE RIXG AND THE BOOK. 

But now all 's changed : beside, the season 's past 

At the villa, — wants the master's eye no more. 

Anyhow, I beseech you, stay away 640 

From the window! He might well be posted there." 

I wrote — " You raise my courage, or call up 

My curiosity, who am but man. 

Tell him he owns the palace, not the street 

Under — that's his and yours and mine alike. 645 

If it should please me pad the path this eve, 

Guido will have two troubles, first to get 

Into a rage and then get out again. 

Be cautious, though : at the Ave ! " 

You of the Court ! 
When I stood question here and reached this point 650 

O' the narrative, — search notes and see and say 
If some one did not interpose with smile 
And sneer, "And prithee why so confident 
That the husband must, of all needs, not the wife, 
Fabricate thus, — what if the lady loved.'' 655 

What if she wrote the letters ? " 

Learned Sir, 
I told you there 's a picture in our church. 
Well, if a low-browed verger sidled up 
Bringing me, like a blotch, on his prod's point, 
A transfixed scorpion, let the reptile writhe, 660 

And then said " See a thing that Rafael made — 
This venom issued from Madonna's mouth!" 
I should reply, " Rather, the soul of you 
Has issued from your body, like from like. 
By way of the ordure-corner! " 

But no less, 665 

I tired of the same long black teasing lie 
Obtruded thus at every turn ; the pest 
Was far too near the picture, anyhow : 
One does Madonna service, making clowns 

Remove their dung-heap from the sacristy. 670 

"I will to the window, as he tempts." said I : 
" Yes, whom the easy love has failed allure. 
This new bait of adventure tempts, — thinks he. 
Though the imprisoned lady keeps afar. 

There will they lie in ambush, heads alert, 675 

Kith, kin, and Count mustered to bite my heel. 
No mother nor brother viper of the brood 
Shall scuttle off without the instructive bruise!" 

So I went : crossed street and street : "'The next street's turn, 
I stand beneath the terrace, see, above, 680 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHI. 207 

The black of tlie ambush-window. Then, in place 

Of hand's throw of soft prelude over lute, 

And cough that clears way for the ditty last," — 

I began to laugh already — " he will have 

■Out of the hole you hide in, on to the front, 685 

Count Guido Franceschini, show yourself! 

Hear what a man thinks of a thing like you, 

And after, take this foulness in your face! '" 

The words lay living on my lip, I made 

The one-turn more — and there at the window stood, 690 

Framed in its black square lengtli, witli lamp in hand, 

Pompilia ; the same great, grave, griefi'ul air 

As stands i' the dusk, on altar that I know, 

Left alone with one moonbeam in her cell, 

Our Lady of all the Sorrows. ^ Ere I knelt — 695 

Assured myself that she was flesh and blood — 

She had looked one look and vanished. 

I thought — "Just so : 
It was herself, they have set her there to watch — 
Stationed to see some wedding-band go by, 
On fair pretence that she must bless the bride, 700 

Or wait some funeral with friends wind past, 
And crave peace for the corpse that claims its due. 
Slie never dreams they used her for a snare. 
And now withdraw the bait has served its turn. 
Well done, the husband, who shall fare the worse! " 705 

And on my lip again was — •' Out with thee, 
Guido! '' When all at once she reappeared ; 
But, this time, on the terrace overhead. 
So close above me, she could almost touch 
My head if she bent down ; and she did bend, 710 

While I stood still as stone, all eye, all ear. 

She began — "You have sent me letters. Sir: 

1 have read none, I can neither read nor write ; 

But she you gave them to, a woman here. 

One of the people in whose power I am, 715 

Partly explained their sense, I think, to me 

Obliged to listen while slie inculcates 

Tliat you, a priest, can dare love me, a wife, 

Desire to live or die as I shall bid, 

(She makes me listen if I will or no) 720 

Because you saw my face a single time. 

' Our Lady: the Virgin Mary painted with a sword in her breast to represent her 
jriefs, St. Luke xi. 35. 



2o8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

It cannot be she says the thing you mean ; 

Such wickedness were deadly to us both : 

But good true love would help me now so much — 

I tell myself, you may mean good and true. 725 

You offer me, I seem to understand, 

Because I am in poverty and starve, 

Much money, where one piece would save my life. 

The silver cup upon the altar-cloth 

Is neither yours to give nor mine to take ; 730 

But I might take one bit of bread therefrom, 

Since I am starving, and return the rest. 

Yet do no harm : this is my very case. 

I am in that strait, I may not dare abstain 

From so much of assistance as would bring 735 

The guilt of theft on neither you nor me ; 

But no superfluous particle of aid. 

I think, if you will let me state my case. 

Even had you been so fancy-fevered here. 

Not your sound self, you must grow healthy now — 740 

Care only to bestow what I can take. 

That it is only you in the wide world. 

Knowing me nor in thought nor word nor deed, 

Who, all unprompted save by your own heart. 

Come proffering assistance now, — were strange 745 

But that my whole life is so strange : as strange 

It is, my husband whom I have not wronged 

Should hate and harm me. For his own soul's sake. 

Hinder the harm! But there is something more, 

And that the strangest : it has got to be 750 

Somehow for my sake too, and yet not mine, 

— This is a riddle — for some kind of sake 

Not any clearer to myself than you, 

And yet as certain as that I draw breath, — 

I would fain live, not die — oh no, not die! 755 

My case is, I was dwelling happily 

At Rome with those dear Comparini, called 

Father and mother to me ; when at once 

I found I had become Count Guido's wife : 

Who then, not waiting for a moment, changed 760 

Into a fury of fire, if once he was 

Merely a man : his face threw fire at mine. 

He laid a hand on me that burned all peace, 

All joy, all hope, and last all fear away. 

Dipping the bough of life, so pleasant once, 765 

In fire which shrivelled leaf and bud alike, 

Burning not only present life but past. 

Which you might think was safe beyond his reach. 

He reached it, though, since that beloved pair. 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHI. 209 

My father once, my motlier all those years, 770 

That loved me so, now say 1 dreamed a dream 

And bid me wake, henceforth no child of theirs, 

Never in all the time their child at all. 

Do you understand? I cannot : yet so it is. 

Just so I say of you that proffer help : 775 

I cannot understand what prompts your soul. 

I simply needs must see tliat it is so, 

Only one strange and wonderful thing more. 

They came here with me, those two dear ones, kept 

All the old love up, till my husband, till 780 

His people here so tortured them, they fled. 

And now, is it because I grow in flesh 

And spirit one with him their torturer. 

That they, renouncing him, must cast off me? 

If I were graced by God to have a child, 785 

Could I one day deny God graced me so? 

Then, since my husband hates me, I shall break 

No law that reigns in this fell house of hate, 

By using — letting have eftect so much 

Of hate as hides me from that whole of hate 790 

Would take my life which I want and must have — 

Just as I take from your excess of love 

Enough to save my life with, all I need. 

The Archbishop said to murder me were sin : 

My leaving Guido were a kind of death 795 

With no sin, — more death, he must answer for. 

Hear now what death to him and life to you 

I wish to pay and owe. Take me to Rome! 

You go to Rome, the servant makes me hear. 

Take me as you would take a dog, I think, 800 

Masterle.ss left for strangers to maltreat : 

Take me home like that — leave me in the house 

Where the father and the mother are ; and soon 

They 'll come to know and call me by mv name. 

Their child once more, since child I am,' for all 805 

They now forget me, which is the worst o' the dream — 

And the way to end dreams is to break them, stand, 

Walk, go : then help me to stand, walk and go! 

The Governor said the strong should help the weak : 

You know how weak the strongest women are. <Sio 

How could I find my way there by mvself ? 

I cannot even call out, make them hear — 

Just as in dreams : I have tried and proved the fact. 

I have told this story and more to good great men. 

The Archbishop and the Governor : they smiled. 815 

' Stop your mouth, fair one! ' — presently they frowned, 

' Get you gone, disengage you from our feet ! " 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

I went in my despair to an old priest, 

Only a friar, no great man like these two, 

But good, the Augustinian. people name 820 

Romano, — he confessed me two months since : 

He fears God, wliy then needs he fear the world? 

And when he questioned how it came about 

That I was found in danger of a sin — ■ 

Despair of any help from providence. — 825 

' Since, though your husband outrage you,' said he, 

' That is a case too common, the wives die 

Or live, but do not sin so deep as this ' — 

Then I told — what I never w ill tell you — 

How, worse than husband's hate, I had to bear 830 

The love, — soliciting to shame called love, — 

Of his brother, — the young idle priest i' the house 

With only the devil to meet there. ' This is grave — 

Yes, we must interfere : I counsel, — write 

To those who used to be your parents once, • 835 

Of dangers here, bid them convey you hence!' 

' But.' said I, 'when I neither read nor write?' 

Then he took pity and promised ' I will write.' 

If he did so, — why, they are dumb or dead : 

Either they give no credit to the tale, 840 

Or else, wrapped wholly up in their own joy 

Of such escape, they care not who cries, still 

r the clutches. Anyhow, no word arrives. 

All such extravagance and dreadfulness 

Seems incident to dreaming, cured one way, — 845 

Wake me! The letter I received this morn. 

Said — if the woman spoke your very sense — 

' You would die for me : ' I can believe it now : 

For no.w the dream gets to involve yourself. 

First of all, you seemed wicked and not good, 850 

In writing me those letters : you came in 

Like a thief upon me. I this morning said 

In my extremity, entreat the thief! 

Try if he have in him no honest touch! 

A thief might save me from a murderer. 855 

'T was a thief said the last kind word to Christ : 

Christ took the kindness and forgave the theft : 

And so did I prepare what I now say. 

But now, that you stand and I see your face. 

Though you have never uttered word yet, — well, I know, 860 

Here too has been dream-work, delusion too. 

And that at no time, you with the eyes here, 

Ever intended to do wrong by me. 

Nor wrote such letters therefore. It is false. 

And you are true, have been true, will be true. 865 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCni. 211 

To Rome then, — when is it you take me there? 
Each minute lost is mortal. When? — I ask." 

I answered " It shall be when it can be. 

I will go hence and do your pleasure, find 

The sure and speedy means of travel, then 870 

Come back and take you to your friends in Rome. 

There wants a carriage, money and the rest, — 

A day's work by to-morrow at this time. 

How shall I see you and assure escape?" 

She replied, " Pass, to-morrow at this hour. 875 

If I am at the open window, well : 

If I am absent, drop a handkerchief 

And walk by! I shall see from where I watch. 

And know that all is done. Return next eve. 

And ne.xt, and so till we can meet and speak!" 880 

" To-morrow at this hour I pass," said I. 

She was withdrawn. 

Here is another point 
I bid you pause at. When I told thus far. 
Some one said, subtly, '' Here at least was found 
Your confidence in error, — you perceived 885 

The spirit of the letters, in a sort. 
Had been the lady's, if the body should be 
Supplied by Guido : say, he forged them all! 
Here was the unforged fact — she sent for you. 
Spontaneously elected you to help, 890 

— What men call, loved you : Guido read her mind. 
Gave it expression to assure the world 
Tlie case was just as he foresaw : he wrote. 
She spoke." 

Sirs, that first simile serves still, — 
That falsehood of a scorpion hatched, I say, 895 

Nowhere i' the world but in Madonna's mouth. 
Go on! Suppose, that falseliood foiled, next eve 
Pictured Madonna raised her painted hand. 
Fixed the face Rafael bent above the Babe, 
On my face as I flung me at her feet : 900 

Such miracle vouchsafed and manifest. 
Would that prove tiie first lying tale was true? 
Pompilia spoke, and I at once received, 
Accepted my own fact, my miracle 

Self-authorized and self-explained, — she chose 905 

To summon me and signify her choice. 
Afterward, — oh ! I gave a passing glance 
To a certain ugly cloud-shape, goblin-shred 
Of hell-smoke hurrying past the splendid moon 



212 THE RIXG AND THE BOOK. 

Out now to tolerate no darkness more, 910 

And saw right through the thing that tried to pass 

For truth and soHd, not an empty lie : 

"• So, he not only forged the words for her 

But words for me, made letters he called mine : 

What I sent, he retained, gave these in place, 915 

All by the mistress-messenger! As I 

Recognized her. at potency of truth, 

So she, by the crystalline soul, knew me, 

Never mistook the signs. Enough of this — 

Let the wraith go to nothingness again, 920 

Here is the orb. have only thought for her!" 

" Thought ? " nay. Sirs, what shall follow was not thought : 

I have thought sometimes, and thought long and hard. 

I have stood before, gone round a serious thing. 

Tasked my whole mind to touch and clasp it close, 925 

As I stretch forth my arm to touch this bar. 

God and man, and what duty I owe both, — 

I dare to say I have confronted these 

In thought : but no such faculty helped here. 

I put forth no thought, — powerless, all that night 930 

I paced the city : it was the first Spring. 

By the invasion I lay passive to, 

In rushed new things, the old were rapt away ; 

Alike abolished — the imprisonment 

Of the outside air, the inside weight o' the world 935 

That pulled me down. Death meant, to spurn the ground. 

Soar to the sky, — die well and you do that. 

The very immolation made the bliss ; 

Death was the heart of life, and all the harm 

My folly had crouched to avoid, now proved a veil 940 

Hiding all gain my wisdom strove to grasp : 

As if the intense centre of the flame 

Should turn a heaven to that devoted fly 

Which hitherto, sophist alike and sage, 

Saint Thomas ^ with his sober gray goose-quill, 945 

And sinner Plato by Cephisian- reed. 

Would fain, pretending just the insect's good. 

Whisk off. drive back, consign to shade again. 

Into another state, under new rule 

1 knew myself was passing swift and sure ; 950 

Whereof the initiatory pang approached, 

Felicitous annoy, as bitter-sweet 

As when the virgin-band, the victors chaste, 

' Saint TJwtnas : Aquinas. See note on ■ Cephisiati reed: the reeds of Cephisus, 

1. 484. one of the rivers of Athens. 




CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DELLA PIEVE, AREZZO. INTERIOR. 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHI. 213 

Feel at the end the eartlily garments drop, 

And rise with something of a rosy shame 955 

Into immortal nai<edncss : so I 

Lay. and let come the proper throe would thrill 

Into the ecstasy and outthrob pain. 

r the gray of dawn it was I found myself 

Facing the pillared front o' the Pieve — mine, 960 

My church : it seemed to say for tiie first time 

'• But am not I the Bride, the mystic love 

O' the Lamb, who took thy plighted troth, my priest. 

To fold thy warm heart on my heart of stone 

And freeze thee nor unfasten any more ? 965 

This is a fieshly woman, — let the free 

Bestow their life-blood, thou art pulseless now!" 

Seel Day by day I had risen and left this church 

At the signal waved me by some foolish fan, 

With half a curse and half a pitying smile 970 

For the monk I stumbled over in my haste, 

Prostrate and corpse-like at the altar-foot 

Intent on his corona ^ : then the church 

Was ready with her quip, if word conduced. 

To quicken my pace nor stop for prating — " There! 975 

Be thankful you are no such ninny, go 

Rather to teach a black-eyed novice cards 

Than gabble Latin and protrude that nose 

Smoothed to a sheep's through no brains and much faith!" 

That sort of incentive! Now the church changed tone — 980 

Now, when I found out first that life and death 

Are means to an end, that passion uses both. 

Indisputably mistress of the man 

Whose form of worship is self-sacrifice : 

Now, from the stone lungs sighed the scrannel voice 985 

" Leave that live passion, come be dead with me!" 

As if, i' the fabled garden,- I had gone 

On great adventure, plucked in ignorance 

Hedge-fruit, and feasted to satiety, 

Laughing at such high fame for hips and haws, 990 

And scorned the achievement : then come all at once 

O' the prize o' the place, the thing of perfect gold. 

The apple's self: and, scarce my eye on that, 

Was 'ware as well o' the seven-fold dragon's watcli. 

Sirs, I obeyed. Obedience was too strange, — 995 

This new thing that had been struck into me 

' His corona : his rosary. where the golden apple was guarded by a 

* The fabled garden : of the Hesperides, dragon. 



214 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

By the look o' the lady, — to dare disobey 

The first authoritative word. 'T was God's. 

I had been lifted to the level of her, 

Could take such sounds into my sense. I said loco 

" We two are cognisant o' the Master now ; 

She it is bids me bow the head : how true, 

I am a priest ! I see the function here ; 

I thought the other way self-sacrifice : 

This is the true, seals up the perfect sum. 1005 

I pay it, sit down, silently obey." 

So, I went home. Dawn broke, noon broadened, I — 

I sat stone-still, let time run over me. 

The sun slanted into my room, had reached 

The west. I opened book, — Aquinas blazed loio 

With one black name only on the white page. 

I looked up, saw the sunset : vespers rang : 

'*She counts the minutes till 1 keep my word 

And come say all is ready. I am a priest. 

Duty to God is duty to her : I think 1015 

God, who created her, will save her too 

Some new way. by one miracle the more. 

Without me. Then, prayer may avail perhaps." 

I went to my own place i' the Pieve, read 

The office : I was back at home again 1020 

Sitting i' the dark. " Could she but know — but know 

That, were there good in this distinct from God's, 

Really good as it reached her, though procured 

By a sin of mine, — 1 should sin : God forgives. 

She knows it is no fear withholds me : fear.' 1025 

Of what ? Suspense here is the terrible thing. 

If she should, as she counts the minutes, come 

On the fantastic notion that I fear 

The world now, fear the Archbishop, fear perhaps 

Count Guido, he who, having forged the lies, 1030 

May wait the work, attend the effect, — I fear 

The sword of Guido ! Let God see to that — 

Hating lies, let not her believe a lie! " 

Again the morning found me. "I will work, 

Tie down my foolish thoughts. Thank God so far! 1035 

I have saved her from a scandal, stopped the tongues 

Had broken else into a cackle and hiss 

Around the noble name. Duty is still 

Wisdom : I have been wise." So the day wore. 

At evening — " But, achieving victory, I040 

I must not blink the priest's peculiar part, 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHI. 215 

Nor shrink to counsel, comfort : priest and friend — 

How do we discontinue to be friends? 

1 will go minister, advise her seek 

Help at the source. — above all. not despair : 1045 

There may be other happier help at hand. 

I hope it, — wherefore then neglect to say? " 

There she stood — leaned there, for the second time, 

Over the terrace, looked at me. then spoke : 

" Why is it you have suftered me to stay 1050 

Breaking my heart two days more than was need? 

Why delay heljD, your own heart yearns to give? 

You are again here, in the self-same mind, 

I see here, steadfast in the face of you, — 

You grudge to do no one thing that I ask. 1055 

Why then is nothing done? You know my need. 

Still, through God's pity on me. there is time 

And one day more : shall 1 be saved or no ? " 

I answered — " Lady, waste no thought, no word 

Even to forgive me! Care- for what I care — 1060 

Only! Now follow me as I were fate! 

Leave this house in the dark to-morrow night. 

Just before daybreak : — there 's new moon this eve — 

It sets, and then begins the solid black. 

Descend, proceed to the Torrione, step 1065 

Over the low dilapidated wall. 

Take San Clemente. there 's no other gate 

Unguarded at the hour : some paces thence 

An inn stands ; cross to it : I shall be there." 

She answered, " If I can but find the way. 1070 

But I shall find it. Go now! " 

I did go. 
Took rapidly the route myself prescribed. 
Stopped at Torrione, climbed the ruined place. 
Proved that the gate was practicable, reached 
The inn. no eye, despite the dark, could miss, 1075 

Knocked there and entered, made the host secure: 
" With Caponsacchi it is ask and have ; 
I know my betters. Are you bound for Rome? 
I get swift horse and trusty man," said he. 

Then I retraced my steps, was found once more 1080 

In my own house for the last time : there lay 
The broad pale opened Summa. " Shut his book, 
There 's other showing! 'T was a Thomas too 
Obtained, — more favored than his namesake here, — 



2i6 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

A gift, tied faith fast, foiled the tug of doubt, — 1085 

Our Lady's girdle ; ^ down he saw it drop 
As she ascended into heaven, they say : 
He kept that safe and bade all doubt adieu. 
1 too have seen a lady and hold a grace." 

1 know not how the night passed : morning broke ; 1090 

Presently came my servant. " Sir, this eve — 

Do you forget ? " I started. ''How forget? 

What is it vou know?" "With due submission. Sir 

This being last Monday in the month but one 

And a vigil, since to-morrow is Saint George, 1095 

And feast day, and moreover day for copes, 

And Canon Conti now away a month. 

And Canon Crispi sour because, forsooth, 

You let him sulk in stall and bear the brunt 

Of the octave . . . Well, Sir, 't is important I " 

"True! 11 00 
Hearken, I have to start for Rome this night. 
No word, lest Crispi overboil and burst! 
Provide me with a laic dress! Throw dust 
V the Canon^s eye, stop his tongue's scandal so! 
See there 's a sword in case of accident." 1105 

I knew the knave, the knave knew me. 

And thus 
Through each familiar hindrance of the day 
Did I make steadily for its hour and end, — 
Felt time's old barrier-growth of right and fit 
Give way through all its twines, and let me go. mo 

Use and wont recognized the excepted man, 
Let speed the special service, — and I sped 
Till, at the dead between midnight and morn, 
There was I at the goal, before the gate. 

With a tune in the ears, low leading up to loud, 1 115 

A light in the eyes, faint that would soon be flare, 
Ever some spiritual witness new and new 
In faster frequence, crowding solitude 
To watch the way o' the warfare, — till, at last, 
When the ecstatic minute must bring birth, 11 20 

Began a whiteness in the distance, waxed 
Whiter and whiter, near grew and more near. 
Till it was she : there did Pompilia come : 
The white I saw shine through her was her soul's. 
Certainly, for the body was one black, 1125 

Black from head down to foot. She did not speak, 

' Our Lady's girdle : according to the loosened her girdle, which fell into the hands 
tradition, the Virgin, on her ascent to heaven, of the doubting apostle, St. Thomas. 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHl. 217 

Glided into the carriage, — so a cloud 
• Gathers the moon up. " By San Spirito, 
To Rome, as if the road burned underneath ! 
Reach Rome, then hold my head in pledge, I pay 1130 

The run and the risk to heart's content! " Just that 
I said, — then, in another tick of time. 
Sprang, was beside her, she and 1 alone. 

So it began, our flight thro" dusk to clear. 

Through day and night and day again to night 1135 

Once more, and to last dreadful dawn of all. 

Sirs, how should I lie quiet in my grave 

Unless you suiTer me wring, drop by drop, 

My brain dry, make a riddance of the drench 

Of minutes with a memory in each, 1 140 

Recorded motion, breath or look of hers, 

Which poured forth would present you one pure glass, 

Mirror you plain, — as God's sea,^ glassed in gold. 

His saints, — the perfect soul Pompilia? Men, 

You must know that a man gets drunk with truth 1145 

Stagnant inside him! Oh, they've killed her. Sirs! 

Can I be calm ? 

Calmly! Each incident 
Proves, I maintain, that action of the flight 
For the true thing it was. The first faint scratch 
O' the stone will test its nature, teach its worth 11 50 

To idiots who name Parian - — coprolite.^ 
After all, I shall give no glare — at best 
Only display you certain scattered lights 
Lamping the rush and roll of the abvss : 

Nothing but here and there a fire-point pricks 1155 

Wavelet from wavelet : well ! 

For the first hour 
We both were silent in the night, I know : 
Sometimes I did not see nor understand. 
Blackness engulphed me, — partial stupor, say — 
Then I would break way, breathe through the surprise, 1160 
And be aware again, and see who sat 
In the dark vest with the white face and hands. 
I said to myself — •' I have caught it, I conceive 
The mind o' the mystery : 't is the way they wake 
And wait, two martyrs somewhere in a tomb 11 65 

Each by each as their blessing was to die ; 
Some signal they are promised and expect, — 
When to arise before the trumpet scares : 

^ God's sea : Revelation, iv. 6. ^ Coprolitc : petrified dung of carnivo- 

2 Parian : pure marble from Pares. reus reptiles. 



2i8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

So, through the whole course of the world they wait 

The last day, but so fearless and so safe! 1170 

No otherwise, in safety and not fear, 

I lie, because she lies too by my side." 

You know this is not love. Sirs, — it is faith. 

The feeling that there 's God, he reigns and rules 

Out of this low world : that is all ; no harm ! 1 175 

At times she drew a soft sigh — music seemed 

Always to hover just above her lips, 

Not settle, — break a silence music too. 

In the determined morning, I first found 

Her head erect, her face turned full to me, 1180 

Her soul intent on mine through two wide eyes. 

I answered them. •' You are saved hitherto. 

We have passed Perugia, — gone round by the wood, 

Not through, I seem to think, — and opposite 

I know Assisi ; this is holy ground." ^ 1185 

Then she resumed. '' How long since we both left 

Arezzo?" "Years — and certain hours beside." 

It was at . . . ah, but I forget the names! 

'T is a mere post-house and a hovel or two : 

I left the carriage and got bread and wine 1190 

And brought it her. '' Does it detain to eat?" 

"They stay perforce, change horses, — therefore eat! 

We lose no minute : we arrive, be sure ! " 

This was — I know not where — there 's a great hill 

Close over, and the stream has lost its bridge, 1 195 

One fords it. She began — "I have heard say 

Of some sick body that my mother knew, 

'T was no good sign when in a limb diseased 

All the pain suddenly departs, — as if 

The guardian angel discontinued pain . 1200 

Because the hope of cure was gone at last : 

The limb will not again e.xert itself. 

It needs be pained no longer : so with me, 

— My soul whence all the pain is past at once : 

All pain must be to work some good in the end. 1205 

True, this I feel now, this may be that good, 

Pain was because of, — otherwise, I fear!" 

She said, — a long while later in the day. 

When I had let the silence be, — abrupt — 

" Have you a mother? " "• She died, I was born." 12 10 

^Assisi . . . holy ground : because St. order of Franciscan monks and the monastery 
Francis was born there in 1182, founder of the of St. Francis. 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHf. 219 

'• A sister then? " " No sister." " Who was it — 

What woman were you used to serve this way, 

Be kind to. till I called you and you came? " 

I did not like that word. Soon afterward — 

•' Tell me, are men unhappy, in some kind 12 15 

Of mere unhappiness at being men. 

As women suffer, being womanish? 

Have vou, now, some unhappiness, I mean, 

Born of what may be man's strength overmuch. 

To match the undue susceptibility, 1220 

The sense at every pore when hate is close? 

It hurts us if a baby hides its face 

Or child strikes at us punily. calls names 

Or makes a mouth, — much more if stranger men 

Laugh or frown, — just as that were much to bear! 1225 

Yet rocks split, — and the blow-ball does no more. 

Quivers to feathery nothing at a touch ; 

And strength may have its drawback weakness scapes." 

Once she asked "What is it that made you smile. 

At the great gate with the eagles and the snakes, 1230 

Where the company entered, "tis a long time since?" 

'• — Forgive — I think vou would not understand : 

.All, but you ask me, — therefore, it was this. 

That was a certain bishop's villa-gate, 

I knew it by the eagles, — and at once 1235 

Remembered this same bishop was just he 

People of old were wont to bid me please 

If I would catch preferment : so, I smiled 

Because an impulse came to me, a whim — 

What if I prayed the prelate leave to speak, 1240 

Began upon him in his presence-hall 

— 'What, still at work so gray and obsolete? 

Still rocheted and mitred more or less? 

Don't you feel all that out of fashion now ? 

I lind out when the day of things is done!' " 1245 

At eve we heard the angehis:'^ she turned — 

" I told you I can neither read nor write. 

My life stopped with the play-time ; I will learn. 

If I begin to live again : but you — 

Who are a priest — wherefore do you not read 1250 

The service at this hour? Read Gabriel's song. 

The lesson, and then read the little prayer 

To Raphael, proper for us travellers ! " 

1 did not like that, neither, but I read. 

1 The angclus : the brief service said at consisting of the ^z/f, or " Hail, Mary," etc., 
the toll of the bell, at morn, noon, and night, with versicle response and a collect. 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

When we stopped at Foligno it was dark. 1255 

The people of the post came out with lights : 

The driver said, " This time to-morrow, may 

Saints only help, relays continue good, 

Nor robbers hinder, we arrive at Rome." 

I urged, "Why tax your strength a second night? 1260 

Trust me, alight here and take brief repose! 

We are out of harm's reach, past pursuit : go sleep 

If but an hour! I keep watch, guard the while 

Here in the doorway." But her whole face changed, 

The misery grew again about her mouth, 1265 

The eyes burned up from faintness, like the fawn's 

Tired to death in the thicket, when she feels 

The probing spear o' the huntsman. "Oh, no stay !" 

She cried, in the fawn's cry, " On to Rome, on, on — 

Unless 't is you who fear, — which cannot be! " 1270 

We did go on all night ; but at its close 

She was troubled, restless, moaned low, talked at whiles 

To herself, her brow on quiver with the dream : 

Once, wide awake, she menaced, at arms' length 

Waved away something — "Never again with you ! 1275 

My soul is mine, my body is my soul's : 

You and I are divided ever more 

In soul and body : get you gone ! " Then I — 

"Why. in my whole life I have never prayed! 

Oh, if the God, that only can. would help! 1280 

Am I his priest with power to cast out fiends? 

Let God arise and all his enemies 

Be scattered ! " By morn there was peace, no sigh 

Out of the deep sleep. 

When she woke at last, 
I answered the first look — " Scarce twelve hours more. 1285 
Then. Rome! There probably was no pursuit. 
There cannot now be peril : bear up brave! 
Just some twelve hours to press through to the prize : 
Then, no more of the terrible journey! " " Then, 
No more o' the journey : if it might but last! 1290 

Always, my life-long, thus to journey still! 
It is the interruption that I dread, — • 
With no dread, ever to be here and thus! 
Never to see a face nor hear a voice! 

Yours is no voice ; you speak when you are dumb ; 1295 

Nor face, I see it in the dark. I want 
No face nor voice that change and grow unkind." 
That I liked, that was the best thing she said. 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHI. 221 

In the broad day, I dared entreat. "Descend!" 

I told a woman.'at the garden-gate 1300 

By the post-house, white and pleasant in the sun, 

"it is my sister, — talk with her apart! 

She is married and unhappy, you perceive ; 

I take her home because her head is hurt ; 

Comfort her as you women understand! " 1305 

So, there I left them by the garden-wall. 

Paced the road, then bade put the horses to. 

Came back, and there she sat : close to her knee, 

A black-eyed child still held the bowl of milk. 

Wondered to see how little she could drink. 13 10 

And in her arms the woman's infant lay. 

She smiled at me " How much good this has done! 

This is a whole night's rest and how much more! 

I can proceed now, though I wish to stay. 

How do you call that tree with the thick top 1315 

That holds in all its leafy green and gold 

The sun now like an immense egg of fire? " 

(It was a million-leaved mimosa.) "Take 

The babe away from me and let me go! " 

And in the carriage '' Still a day. my friend! 1320 

And perhaps half a night, the woman fears. 

I pray it finish since it cannot last 

There may be more misfortune at the close. 

And where will you be? God suffice me then! " 

And presently — for there was a roadside-shrine — 1325 

" When I was taken first to my own church 

Lorenzo in Lucina, being a girl. 

And bid confess my faults, I interposed 

'But teach me what fault to confess and know I' 

So, the priest said — 'You should bethink yourself: 1330 

Each human being needs must have done wrong!' 

Now, be you candid and no priest but friend — 

Were I surprised and killed here on the spot, 

A runaway from husl)and and his home. 

Do you account it were in sin I died? 1335 

My husband used to seem to harm me, not . . . 

Not on pretence he punished sin of mine. 

Nor for sin's sake and lust of cruelty. 

But as I heard him bid a farming-man 

At the villa take a lamb once to the wood 1340 

And there ill-treat it, meaning that the wolf 

Should hear its cries, and so come, quick be caught, 

Enticed to the trap : he practised thus with me 

That so, whatever were his gain thereby. 

Others than I might become prey and spoil. 1345 

Had it been onlv between our two selves, — 



232 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

His pleasure and my pain. — \vh\'. pleasure him 

By dying, nor such need to make a coil ! 

But this was worth an elTort, that my pain 

Should not become a snare, prove pain threefold 1350 

To other people — strangers — or unborn — 

How should I know? I sought release from that- 

I think, or else from, — dare I say, some cause 

Such as is put into a tree, which turns 

Away from the north wind with what nest it holds, — 1355 

The woman said that trees so turn : now, friend, 

Tell me, because I cannot trust myself ! 

You are a man : what have I done amiss ? " 

You must conceive my answer, — I forget — 

Taken up wholly with the thought, perhaps, 1360 

This time she might have said, — might, did not say — 

" You are a priest." She said, '• my friend." 

Day wore, 
We passed the places, somehow the calm went. 
Again the restless eyes began to rove 

In new. fear of the foe mine could not see. 1365 

She wandered in her mind, — addressed me once 
" Gaetano ! " — that is not my name : whose name ? ^ 
I grew alarmed, my head seemed turning too. 
I quickened pace with promise now, now threat : 
Bade drive and drive, nor any stopping more. ^yT^ 

"Too deep i' the thick of the struggle, struggle through! 
Then drench her in repose though death's self pour 
The plenitude of quiet, — help us, God, 
Whom the winds carry! " 

Suddenly I saw 
The old tower, and the little white-walled clump 1375 

Of buildings and the cypress-tree or two, — 
"Already Castelnuovo — Rome!" 1 cried, 
"As good as Rome, — Rome is the ne.xt stage, think! 
This is where travellers' hearts are wont to beat. 
Say you are saved, sweet lady! " Up she woke. 1380 

The sky was fierce with color from the sun 
Setting. She screamed out •' No, I must not die ! 
Take me no farther, I should die : stay here! 
I have more life to save than mine ! " 

She swooned. 
We seemed safe : what was it foreboded so? 1385 

Out of the coach into the inn 1 bore 
The motionless and breathless pure and pale 
Pompilia, — bore her through a pitying group 
And laid her on a couch, still calm and cured 

' Gactauo . . . whose name : see Book VII. loi. 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI. 223 

By deep sleep of all woes at once. The host 1390 

Was urgent " Let her stay an liour or two! 
Leave her to us. all will be right by morn!" 
Oh, mv foreboding! But 1 could not choose. 



I paced the passage, kept watch all night long. 

I listened, — not one movement, not one sigh. 1395 

'• Fear not : she sleeps so sound!" tliey said : but I 

Feared, all the same, kept fearing more and more, 

Found myself throb with fear from head to foot, 

Filled with a sense of such impending woe, 

That, at first pause of night, pretence of gray, 1400 

1 made my mind up it was morn. — " Reach Rome, 

Lest liell reach her! A dozen miles to make. 

Another long breath, and we emerge!" I stood 

r the court-yard, roused the sleepy grooms. " Have out 

Carriage and horse, give haste, take gold!" said I. 1401; 

While they made ready in the doubtful morn, — - 

'T was the last minute, — needs must I ascend 

And break her sleep ; I turned to go. 

And there 
Faced me Count Guido, there posed the mean man 
As master, — took the field, encamped his rights, 1410 

Challenged the world : there leered new triumph, there 
Scowled the old malice in the visage bad 
And black o' the scamp. Soon triumph suppled the tongue 
A little, malice glued to his dry throat, 

And he part howled, part hissed . . . oh, how he kept 1413 

Well out o' the way, at arm's length and to spare! — 
"My salutation to your priestship! What? 
Matutinal, busy with book so soon 
Of an April day that 's damp as tears that now 

Deluge Arezzo at its darling's flight? — 1420 

'T is unfair, wrongs feminity at large, 
To let a single dame monopolize 
A heart the whole se.x claims, should share alike: 
Therefore I overtake you. Canon! Come! 

The lady, — could you leave her side so soon? 1425 

You have not yet experienced at her hands 
My treatment, you lay down undrugged, 1 see! 
Hence this alertness — hence no death-in-life 
Like what held arms fast when she stole from mine. 
To be sure, you took the solace and repose 1430 

That first night at Foligno! — news abound 
O' tlie road by this time, — men regaled me much, 
As past them 1 came halting after you. 



224 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Vulcan pursuing Mars,^ as poets sing, — 

Still at the last here pant I. but arrive, 1435 

Vulcan — and not without my Cyclops too, 

The Commissary and the unpoisoned arm 

O' the Civil Force, should Mars turn mutineer. 

Enough of fooling : capture the culprits, friend! 

Here is the lover in the smart disguise 144° 

With the sword. — he is a priest, so mine lies still. 

There upstairs hides my wife the runaway, 

His leman : the two plotted, poisoned first, 

Plundered me after, and eloped thus far 

Where now you find them. Do your duty quick! 1445 

Arrest and hold him! That's done: now catch her!" 

During this speech of that man, — well, I stood 

Away, as he managed, — still, I stood as near 

The throat of him, with these two hands, my own. — 

As now I stand near yours. Sir, — one quick spring, 1450 

One great good satisfying gripe, and lo! 

There had he lain abolished with his lie. 

Creation purged o' the miscreate, man redeemed, 

A spittle wiped off from the face of God! 

I, in some measure, seek a poor excuse ^455 

For what I left undone, in just this fact 

That my first feeling at the speech I quote 

Was — not of what a blasphemy was dared, 

Not what a bag of venomed purulence 

Was split and noisome, — but how splendidly 1460 

Mirthful, how ludicrous a lie was launched! 

Would Moliere's - self wish more than hear such man 

Call, claim such woman for his own, his wife 

Even though, in due amazement at the boast. 

He had stammered, she moreover was divine? 1465 

She to be his, — were hardly less absurd 

Than that he took her name into his mouth. 

Licked, and then let it go again, the beast. 

Signed with his slaver. Oh, she poisoned him. 

Plundered him, and the rest! Well, what I wished 1470 

Was, that he would but go on, say once more 

So to the world, and get his meed of men, 

The fist's reply to the filth. And while I mused, 

The minute, oh the misery, was gone! 

On either idle hand of me there stood 1475 

Really an officer, nor laughed i' the least : 

' Vulcan pursuing Mars : the story of Juan," wherein Moliere (1622-1673) makes 

Vulcan's discovering the love of Venus and the libertine husband claim Donna Elvire, 

Mars, already referred to by Guido. the nun, as his wife. 

° Moliere's : an allusion to the play " Uon 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHl. 225 

Nay, rendered justice to his reason, laid 
Logic to heart as 't were submitted them 
•• Twice two makes four." 

"And now, catch her!" he cried. 
That sobered me. " Let myself lead the way — 1480 

Ere you arrest me, who am somebody. 
Being, as you hear, a priest and privileged. — 
To the lady's chamber! I presume you — men 
Expert, instructed how to find out truth, 

Familiar with the guise of guilt. Detect 1485 

Guilt on her face when it meets mine, then judge 
Between us and the mad dog howling there!" 
Up we all went together, in they broke 
O' the chamber late my chapel. There she lay. 
Composed as when I laid her, that last eve, 1490 

O" the couch, still breathless, motionless, sleep's self, 
Wax-white, seraphic, saturate with the sun 
O' the morning that now flooded from the front 
And filled the window with a light like blood. 
"Behold the poisoner, the adulteress, 1495 

— And feigning sleep too! Seize, bind!" Guido hissed. 

She started up, stood erect, face to face 

With the husband : back he fell, was buttressed there 

By the window all a-flame with morning-red. 

He the black figure, the opprobrious blur 1500 

Against all peace and joy and light and life. 

" Away from between me and hell! " she cried: 

" Hell for me, no embracing any more! 

I am God's, I love God, God — whose knees I clasp. 

Whose utterly most just award I take, 1505 

But bear no more love-making devils : hence! " 

I may have made an effort to reach her side 

From where I stood i' the door-way, — anyhow 

I found the arms, I wanted, i)inioned fast. 

Was powerless in the clutch to left and right 1510 

O' the rabble pouring in, rascality 

Enlisted, rampant on the side of hearth 

Home and the husband, — pay in prospect too! 

They heaped themselves upon me. '• Ha! — and him 

Also you outrage ? Him, too, my sole friend, 1515 

Guardian and saviour? That I baulk you of, 

Since — see how God can help at last and worst!" 

She sprang at the sword that hung beside him, seized. 

Drew, brandished it, the sunrise burned for joy 

C the blade, " Die,"' cried she, " devil, in God's name! "' 1520 

Ah, but they all closed round her, twelve to one 

— The unmanly men, no woman-mother made, 



226 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Spawned somehow! Dead-white and disarmed she lay. 

No matter for the sword, her word sufficed 

To spike the coward through and through : he shook, 1525 

Could only spit between the teeth — " You see? 

You hear? Bear witness, then! Writedown . . . but no — 

Carry these criminals to the prison-house, 

For first thing! I begin my search meanwhile 

After the stolen effects, gold, jewels, plate, 1530 

Money and clothes, they robbed me of and fled, 

With no few amorous pieces, verse and prose, 

I have much reason to expect to find." 

When I saw that — no more than the first mad speech. 

Made out the speaker mad and a laughing-stock, 1535 

So neither did this next device explode 

One listener's indignation, — that a scribe 

Did sit down, set himself to write indeed, 

While sundry knaves began to peer and pry 

In corner and hole, — that Guido, wiping brow 1540 

And getting him a countenance, was fast 

Losing his fear, beginning to strut free 

O' the stage of his exploit, snuti here, sniff there, — 

Then I took truth in, guessed sufficiently 

The service for the moment. "What I say, ^545 

Slight at your peril! We are aliens here. 

My adversary and 1, called noble both ; 

I am the nobler, and a name men know. 

I could refer our cause to our own Court 

In our own country, but prefer appeal 1550 

To the nearer jurisdiction. Being a priest, 

Though in a secular garb. — for reasons good 

I shall adduce in due time to my peers, — 

I demand that the Church I serve, decide 

Between us, right the slandered lady there. 1555 

A Tuscan noble, I might claim the Duke : 

A priest, I rather choose the Church, — bid Rome 

Cover the wronged with her inviolate shield." 

There was no refusing this : they bore me off. 

They bore her off, to separate cells o' the same ■ 1560 

Ignoble prison, and, separate, thence to Rome. 

Pompilia\s face, then and thus, looked on me 

The last time in this life : not one sight since. 

Never another sight to be! And yet 

I thought I had .saved her. I appealed to Rome: 1565 

It seems I simply sent her to her death. 

You tell me she is dying now, or dead ; 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI. 227 

I cannot bring myself to quite believe 

This is a place you torture people in : 

What if this your intelligence were just 1570 

A subtlety, an honest wile to work 

On a man at unawares? 'Twere worthy you. 

No, Sirs, I cannot have the lady dead! 

That erect form, flashing brow, fulgurant eye, 

That voice immortal (oh. that voice of hers!) 1575 

That vision in the blood-red daybreak — that 

Leap to life of the pale electric sword 

Angels go armed with, — that was not the last 

O" the lady! Come, I see through it, you find — 

Know the mancEuvre! Also herself said 1580 

1 had saved her : do you dare say she spoke false ? 

Let me see for myself if it be so! 

Though she were dying, a Priest might be of use. 

The more when he "s a friend too, — she called me 

Far beyond "friend." Come, let me see her — indeed 1585 

It is my duty, being a priest : I hope 

I stand confessed, established, proved a priest? 

Mv punishment had motive that, a priest 

I. in a laic garb, a mundane mode. 

Did what were harmlessly done otherwise. 1590 

I never touched her with my finger-tip 

E.xcept to carry her to the couch, that eve. 

Against my heart, beneath my head, bowed low. 

As we priests carry the paten : ^ that is why 

— To get leave and go see her of your grace — 1595 

I Iiave told you this whole story over again. 

Do I deserve grace? For I might lock lips, 

Laugh at your jurisdiction : what have you 

To do with me in the matter? I suppose 

You hardly think I donned a bravo's dress 1600 

To have a hand in the new crime ; on the old. 

Judgment's delivered, penalty imposed, 

1 was chained fast at Civita hand and foot — 

She had only you to trust to, you and Rome, 

Rome and the' Church, and no pert meddling priest 1605 

Two days ago, when Guido, with the right. 

Hacked' her to pieces. One might well be wroth ; 

I have been patient, done my best to help : 

I come from Civita and punishment 

As friend of the Court — and for pure friendship's sake 16 10 

Have told my tale to the end, — nay, not the end — 

For, wait — I Ml end — not leave you that excuse! 

» The paten : the plate or chalice on which the sacred bread of the communion service 
is carried. 



228 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

When we were parted. — shall I go on there? 

1 was presently brought to Rome — yes, here I stood 

Opposite yonder very crucifix — 1615 

And there sat you and you, Sirs, quite the same. 

I heard charge, and bore question, and told tale 

Noted down in the book there, — turn and see 

If, by one jot or tittle, I vary now ! 

P the color the tale takes, there's change perhaps ; 1620 

'T is natural, since the sky is different. 

Eclipse in the air now ; still, the outline stays. 

I showed you how it came to be my part 

To save the lady. Then your clerk produced 

Papers, a pack of stupid and impure 1625 

Banalities called letters about love — 

Love, indeed, — I could teach who styled them so, 

Better, I think, though priest and loveless both! 

" — How was it that a wife, young, innocent. 

And stranger to your person, wrote this page?" — 1630 

" — She wrote it when the Holy Father wrote 

The bestiality that posts thro' Rome, 

Put in his mouth by Pasquin." ^ " Nor perhaps 

Did you return these answers, verse and prose, 

Signed, sealed and sent the lady? There's your hand!" 1635 

" — This precious piece of verse, I really judge, 

Is meant to copy my own character, 

A clumsy mimic ; and this other prose, 

Not so much even ; both rank forgery : 

Verse, quotha? Bembo's - verse! When Saint John wrote 1640 

The tract '•De Tribus^^^ I wrote this to match." 

" — How came it, then, the documents were found 

At the inn on your departure? " — "I opine, 

Because there were no documents to find 

In my presence, — you must hide before you find. 1645 

Who forged them hardly practised in my view ; 

Who found them waited till I turned my back." 

'• — And what of the clandestine visits paid, 

Nocturnal passage in and out the house 

With its lord absent? 'T is alleged you climbed . . ." 1650 

" — Flew on a broomstick to the man i' the moon! 

Who witnessed or will testify this trash ? " 

" — The trusty servant, Alargherita's self. 

Even she who brought you letters, you confess, 

' Pasquin : the name given to a statue in ^ De Tribiis : the blasphemous and legen- 

Rome (from Pasquino, a cobbler, whose shop dary tract " De Tribus Impostoribus " (Moses, 

opposite to it was a centre of gossip) on Mahomet, and Christ), often referred to in 

which anonymous squibs were posted. the Middle Ages. (For an account of this 

2 Benibo : secretary to Pope Leo X., and curious tradition of a non-existent or secret 

a well-known man of letters (1470-1547). work see " Poet-lore," Vol. VI. p. 248.) 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHI. 229 

And, you confess, took letters in reply : 1655 

Forget not we have knowledge of the facts!" 

'• — Sirs, who have knowledge of the facts, defray 

The expenditure of wit I waste in vain, 

Trving to find out just one fact of all! 

She who brought letters from who could not write, 1660 

And took back letters to who could not read, — 

Who was that messenger, of your charity?" 

" — Well, so far favors you the circumstance 

That this same messenger . . . how siiall we say? . . . 

Sub im put at tone iiieretiicis 1665 

Laborat^ — which makes accusation null : 

We waive this woman's : naught makes void the next. 

Borsi, called Venerino, he who drove, 

O' the tirst night when you fled away, at lengtli 

Deposes to your kissings in the coach, 1670 

— Frequent, frenetic . . ." "When deposed he so?" 

'* After some weeks of sharj) imprisonment . . ." 

" — (Granted by friend the Governor, 1 engage — " 

" — For his participation in your flight! 

At length his obduracy melting made 1675 

The avowal mentioned. . . ." " Was dismissed forthwith 

To libertv, poor knave, for recompense. 

Sirs, give w^hat credit to the lie you can! 

For me, no word in my defence I speak, 

And God shall argue for the lady ! " 

So 1680 

Did I stand question, and make answer, still 
With the same result of smiling disbelief, 
Polite impossibility of faith 
In such affected virtue in a priest ; 

But a showing fair play, an indulgence, even, 1685 

To one no worse than others after all — 
Who had not brought disgrace to the order, played 
Discreetly, ruffled gown nor ripped the cloth 
In a bungling game at romps : I have told you. Sirs — 
If I pretended simply to be pure. 1690 

Honest and Christian in the case, — absurd! 
As well go boast myself above the needs 
O' the human nature, careless how meat smells. 
Wine tastes, — a saint above the smack! But once 
Abate my crest, own flaws i" the flesli, agree 1695 

To go with the herd, be hog no more nor less, 
Whv, hogs in common herd have common rights: 
I must not be unduly borne upon, 
Who just romanced a little, sowed wild oats, 

' Sub imputatione meretricis laborat : " labors under the imputation of unchastity." 



230 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

But 'scaped without a scandal, flagrant fault. 1700 

My name helped to a mirthful circumstance : 

" Joseph " would do well to amend his plea: 

Undoubtedly — some toying with the wife, 

But as for rutifian violence and rape, 

Potiphar^ pressed too much on the other side I 1705 

The intrigue, the elopement, the disguise, — well charged! 

The letters and verse looked hardly like the truth. 

Your apprehension was — of guilt enough 

To be compatible with innocence. 

So, punished best a little and not too much. 1710 

Had I struck Guido Franceschini's face. 

You had counselled me withdraw for my own sake, 

Baulk him of bravo-hiring. Friends came round. 

Congratulated, "Nobody mistakes! 

The pettiness o' the forfeiture defines 171 5 

The peccadillo : Guido gets his share : 

His wife is free of husband and hook-nose, 

The mouldy viands and the mother-in-law. 

To Civita with you and amuse the time. 

Travesty us 'De Raptii Hele/ia ! ' - 1720 

A funny figure must the husband cut 

When the wife makes him skip, — too ticklish, eh? 

Do it in Latin, not the Vulgar, then! 

Scazons ^ — we '11 copy and send his Eminence. 

Mind — one iambus in the final foot! 1725 

He'll rectify it, be your friend for life! " 

Oh, Sirs, depend on me for much new light 

Thrown on the justice and religion here 

By this proceeding, much fresh food for thought! 

And I was just set down to study these 1730 

In relegation, two short days ago. 

Admiring how you read the rules, when, clap, 

A thunder comes into my solitude — 

I am caught up in a whirlwind and cast here. 

Told of a sudden, in this room where so late 1735 

You dealt out law adroitly, that those scales, 

I meekly bowed to, took my allotment from, 

Guido has snatched at, broken in your hands. 

Metes to himself the murder of his wife. 

Full measure, pressed down, running over now! 1740 

Can I assist to an explanation ? — Yes, 

I rise in your esteem, sagacious Sirs, 

' Potiphar : Genesis xxxix. lo. ' Scazons : iambic verses, with a spondee 

' De Raptu Helena : of the carrying off in the final foot instead of an iambus, 
of Helen of Troy. 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHl. 231 

Stand up a renderer of reasons, not 

The officious priest would personate Saint George 

F"or a mock Princess in undragoned days. 1745 

What, the blood startles you? What, after all 

The priest who needs must carry sword on thigh 

May find imperative use for it? Then, there was 

A Princess, was a dragon belching flame, 

And should have been a Saint George also? Then, 1750 

There might be worse schemes than to break the bonds 

At Arezzo, lead her by the little hand, 

Till she reached Rome, and let her try to live ? 

But you were law and gospel, — would one please 

Stand back, allow your faculty elbow-room? 1755 

You blind guides who must needs lead eyes that see! 

Fools, alike ignorant of man and God! 

What was there here should have perplexed your wit 

For a wink of the owl-eyes of you? How miss, then, 

What 's now forced on you by this flare of fact — 1760 

As if Saint Peter failed to recognize 

Nero as no apostle, John or James, 

Till some one burned a martyr, made a torch 

O' the blood and fat to show his features by! 

Could you fail read this cartulary aright 1765 

On head and front of Franceschini there. 

Large-lettered like hell's masterpiece of print, — 

That he, from the beginning pricked at heart 

By some lust, letch of hate against his wife, 

Plotted to plague her into overt sin 1770 

And shame, would slay Pompilia body and soul. 

And save his mean self — miserably caught 

r the quagmire of his own tricks, cheats and lies ? 

— That himself wrote those papers, — from himself 

To himself, — which, i' the name of me and her, 1775 

His mistress-messenger gave her and me. 
Touching us with such pustules of the soul 
That she and I might take the taint, be shown 
To the world and shuddered over, speckled so? 

— That the agent put her sense into my words, 1780 
Made substitution of the thing she hoped. 

For the thing she had and held, its opposite. 
While the husband in the background bit his lips 
At each fresh failure of his precious plot ? 

— That when at the last we did rush each on each, 1785 
By no chance but because God willed it so — 

The spark of truth was struck from out our souls — 

Made all of me, descried in the first glance. 

Seem fair and honest and permissii)le love 

O' the good and true — as the first glance told me 1790 



±32 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

There was no duty patent in the world 

Like daring try be good and true myself, 

Leaving the shows of things to the Lord of Show 

And Prince o' the Power of the Air. Our very flight, 

Even to its most ambiguous circumstance, 1795 

Irrefragably proved how futile, false . . . 

Whv. men — men and not boys — boys and not babes — 

Babes and not beasts — beasts and not stocks and stones! — 

Had the liar's lie been true one pin-point speck, 

Were I the accepted suitor, free o' the place, 1800 

Disposer of the time, to come at a call 

And go at a wink as who should say me nay, — 

What need of flight, what were the gain therefrom 

But just damnation, failure or success? 

Damnation pure and simple to her the wife 1805 

And me the priest — who bartered private bliss 

For public reprobation, the safe shade 

For the sunshine which men see to pelt me by : 

What other advantage, — we who led the days 

And nights alone i' the house, — was flight to find? 1810 

In our whole journey did we stop an hour, 

Diverge a foot from straight road till we reached 

Or would have reached — but for that fate of ours — 

The father and mother, in the eye of Rome, 

The eye of yourselves we made aware of us 181 5 

At the first fall of misfortune? And indeed 

You did so far give sanction to our flight, 

Confirm its purpose, as lend helping hand, 

Deliver up Pompilia not to him 

She fled, but those the flight was ventured for. 1820 

Why then could you, who stopped short, not go on 

One poor step more, and justify the means. 

Having allowed the end? — not see and say 

" Here 's the exceptional conduct that should claim 

To be exceptionally judged on rules 1825 

Which, understood, make no exception here" — 

Why play instead into the deviPs hands 

By dealing so ambiguously as gave 

Guido the power to intervene like me, 

Prove one exception more? I saved his wife - 1830 

Against law : against law he slays her now : 

Deal with him! 

I have done with being judged. 
I stand here guiltless in thought, word and deed, 
To the point that I apprise you, — in contempt 
For all misapprehending ignorance 1835 

0' the human heart, much more the mind of Christ, — 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI. 233 

Tliat I assuredly did bow, was blessed 

By the revelation of Pompilia. There! 

Such is the final fact I fling you. Sirs, 

To mouth and mumble and misinterpret : there! 1840 

"The priest's in love," have it the vulgar way! 

Unpriest me, rend the rags o' the vestment, do — 

Degrade deep, disenfranchise all you dare — 

Remove me from the midst, no longer priest 

And tit companion for the like of you — 1845 

Your gay Abati with the well-turned leg 

And rose i' the hat-rim. Canons, cross at neck 

And silk mask in the pocket of the gown, 

Brisk Bishops with the world's musk still unbrushed 

From the rochet ; 1 11 no more of these good things : 1850 

There "s a crack somewhere, something that 's unsound 

r the rattle! 

For Pompilia — be advised. 
Build churches, go pray! You will find me there, 
I know, if you come, — and you will come, I know. 
Why, there's a Judge weeping! Did not I say 1855 

You were good and true at bottom ? You see the truth — 
I am glad I helped you : she helped me just so. 

But for Count Guido, — you must counsel there! 

I bow my head, bend to the very dust, 

Break myself up in shame of faultiness. i860 

I had him one whole moment, as I said — 

As I remember, as will never out 

O' the thoughts of me, — I had him in arm's reach 

There, — as you stand. Sir, now you cease to sit, — 

I could have killed him ere he killed his wife, 1865 

And did not : he went off alive and well 

And then effected this last feat — through me! 

Me — not through you — dismiss that fear! 'T was you 

Hindered me staying here to save her, — not 

From leaving you and going back to him 1870 

And doing service in Arezzo. Come, 

Instruct me in procedure! I conceive — 

In all due self-abasement might I speak — 

How you will deal with Guido : oh, not death! 

Death, if it let her life be: otherwise 1875 

Not death, — your lights will teach you clearer! I 

Certainly have an instinct of mv own 

r the matter : bear with me and weigh its worth! 

Let us go away — leave Guido all alone 

Back on the world again that knows him now! 1880 

I think he will be found (indulge so far!) 

Not to die so much as slide out of life, 



234 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Pushed by the general horror and common hate 

Low, lower, — left o' the very ledge of things, 

I seem to see him catch convulsively 1885 

One by one at all honest forms of life, 

At reason, order, decency and use — 

To cramp him and get foothold by at least ; 

And still they disengage them from his clutch. 

"What, are you he, then, had Pompilia once 1890 

And so forewent her? Take not up with us!" 

And thus I see him slowly and surely edged 

OiT all the table-land whence life upsprings 

Aspiring to be immortality, 

As the snake, hatched on hill-top by mischance, 1895 

Despite his wriggling, slips, slides, slidders down 

Hill-side, lies low and prostrate on the smooth 

Level of the outer place, lapsed in the vale : 

So 1 lose Guido in the loneliness. 

Silence and dusk, till at the doleful end, 1900 

At the horizontal line, creation's verge. 

From what just is to absolute nothingness — 

Whom is it, straining onward still, he meets? 

What other man deep further in the fate, 

Who, turning at the prize of a footfall 1905 

To flatter him and promise fellowship. 

Discovers in the act a frightful face — 

Judas, made monstrous by much solitude! 

The two are at one now ! Let them love their love 

That bites and claws like hate, or hate their hate 1910 

That mops and mows and makes as it were love' 

There, let them each tear each in deviFs-fun, 

Or fondle this the other while malice aches — 

Both teach, both learn detestability! 

Kiss him the kiss, Iscariot! Pay that back, 191 5 

That smatch o' the slaver blistering on your lip. 

By the better trick, the insult he spared Christ — 

Lure him the lure o' the letters, Aretine! 

Lick him o'er slimy-smooth with jelly-filth 

O' the verse-and-prose pollution in love's guise! 1920 

The cockatrice is with the basilisk ! 

There let them grapple, denizens o' the dark, 

Foes or friends, but indissolubly bound. 

In their one spot out of the ken of God 

Or care of man, for ever and ever more! 1925 

Why, Sirs, what 's this? Why, this is sorry and strange! 

Futility, divagation : this from me 

Bound to be rational, justify an act 

Of sober man! — whereas, being moved so much, 



GIUSEPPE CAPOXSACCHI. 235 

I give you cause to doubt the lady's mind : 1930 

A pretty sarcasm for the world! I fear 

You do her wit injustice, — all through me! 

Like my fate all througii, — ineffective help! 

A poor rash advocate I prove myself. 

You might be angry with good cause : but sure 1935 

At the advocate. — only at the undue zeal 

That spoils the force of his own plea, I think? 

iMy part was just to tell you how things stand. 

State facts and not be flustered at their fume. 

But then "t is a priest speaks : as for love, — no! 1940 

If you let buzz a vulgar fly like that 

About your brains, as if 1 loved, forsooth. 

Indeed. Sirs, you do wrong! We had no thought 

Of such infatuation, she and I : 

There are many points that prove it : do be just! 1945 

I told you, — at one little roadside-place 

I spent a good half-hour, paced to and fro 

The garden ; just to leave her free awhile, 

I plucked a handful of Spring herb and bloom : 

1 might have sat beside her on the bench 1950 

Where the children were : I wish the thing had been, 

Indeed : the event could not be worse, you know : 

One more half-hour of her saved! She'"s dead now. Sirs! 

While I was running on at such a rate. 

Friends should have plucked me by the sleeve : I went 1955 

Too much o' the trivial outside of her face 

And the purity that shone there — plain to me, 

Not to you, what more natural.? Nor am I 

Infatuated, — oh, I saw, be sure! 

Her brow had not the right line, leaned too much, i960 

Painters would say ; they like the straight-up Greek : 

This seemed bent somewhat with an invisible crow^n 

Of martyr and saint, not such as art approves. 

And how the dark orbs dwelt deep underneath. 

Looked out of such a sad sweet heaven on me! 1965 

The lips, compressed a little, came forward too. 

Careful for a whole world of sin and pain. 

That was the face, her husband makes his plea. 

He sought just to disfigure, — no offence 

Beyond that! Sins, let us be rational! 1970 

He needs must vindicate his honor, — ay, 

Yet shirks, the coward, in a clown's disguise, 

Away from the scene, endeavors to escape. 

Now, had he done so, slain and left no trace 

O' the slayer, — what were vindicated, pray? 1975 

You had found his wife disfigured or a corpse, 

For what and by whom? It is too palpable! 



236 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Then, here's another point involving law: 

I use this argument to show you meant 

No calumny against us by that title 1980 

O' the sentence, — liars try to twist it so : 

What penalty it bore, 1 had to pay 

Till further proof should follow of innocence — 

Probatioiiis ob defectum} — proof? 

How could you get proof without trying us? 1985 

You went through the preliminary form. 

Stopped there, contrived this sentence to amuse 

The adversary. If the title ran 

For more than fault imputed and not proved. 

That was a simple penman's error, else 199° 

A slip i' the phrase, — as when we say of you 

"Charged with injustice" — which may either be 

Or not be, — 't is a name that sticks meanwhile. 

Another relevant matter: fool that I am! 

Not what I wish true, yet a point friends urge: 1995 

It is not true, — yet, since friends think it helps, — 

She only tried me when some others failed — 

Began with Conti, whom I told you of. 

And Guillichini, Guido"s kinsfolk both. 

And when abandoned by them, not before, 2000 

Turned to me. That 's conclusive why she turned. 

Much good they got by the happy cowardice! 

Conti is dead, poisoned a month ago : 

Does that much strike you as a sin? Not much. 

After the present murder, — one mark more 2005 

On the Moor's skin, — what is black by blacker still ? 

Conti had come here and told truth. And so 

With Guillichini ; he 's condemned of course 

To the galleys, as a friend in this affair. 

Tried and condemned for no one thing i' the world, 2010 

A fortnight since by who but the Governor? — 

The just judge, who refused Pompilia help 

At first blush, being her husband's friend, you know. 

There are two tales to suit the separate courts, 

Arezzo and Rome : he tells you here, we fled 2015 

Alone, unhelped, — lays stress on the main fault. 

The spiritual sin, Rome looks to : but elsewhere 

He likes best we should break in, steal, bear off. 

Be fit to brand and pillory and flog — 

That 's the charge goes to the heart of the Governor : 2020 

If these unpriest me, you and I may yet 

Converse, Vincenzo Marzi-Medici ! 

Oh, Sirs, there are worse men than you, I say! 

1 Probationis ob defectum : " for want of sufficient proof." 



GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI. 239 

More easily duped, I mean ; this stupid lie, 

Its liar never dared propound in Rome, 

He gets Arezzo to receive, — nay more. 

Gets Florence and tlie Uuke to authorize! 

This is their Rota's sentence, their Grandukf 

Signs and seals! Rome for me henceforvv? 

VV'here better men are, — most of all, tha* 

The Augustinian of the Hospital, 

Who writes the letter,^ — he confessp'^ 

Many a dying person never ^ne ^ ^j^ry of her l.fe with a sim- 

So sweet and true and pure and beau nature absolutely self-poised, 

A good man! Will you make him Ponerring certainty in spite of 

Not that he is not good too, this we ha^ those who had brought 

But old, — else he would have his word t on'oferfe^lofef ""' 

His truth to teach the world : I thirst for t ^ '-' 

But shall not drink it till I reach the source. , 

Sirs, I am quiet again. You see, we are 

So very pitiable, she and I, 

Who had conceivably been otherwise. 

Forget distemperature and idle heat! ^ 

Apart from truth's sake, what 's to move so much ? 

Pompilia will be presently with God ; 2045 

I am, on earth, as good as out of it, 

A relegated priest ; when exile ends, 

I mean to do my duty and live long. 

She and I are mere strangers now : but priests 

Should study passion ; how else cure mankind, 2050 

Who come for help in passionate extremes? 

I do but play with an imagined life 

Of who, unfettered by a vow, unblessed 

By the higher call, — since you will have it so, — 

Leads it companioned by the woman there. 2055 

To live, and see her learn, and learn by her. 

Out of the low obscure and petty world — 

Or only see one purpose and one will 

Evolve themselves i' the world, change wrong to right : 

To have to do with nothing but the true, 2060 

The good, the eternal — and these, not alone 

In the main current of the general life, 

But small experiences of every day, 

^Augustinian . . . ivho luritcs the letter : not say more for fear of being taxed with 

Kri Celestino .\ngeIo di Sant Anna, the Au- partiality. I know well that God alone can 

gustinian monk who confessed Pompilia, and examine the heart. But I know also that 

whose deposition is given in a contemporary from the abundance of the heart the mouth 

pampthlet describing the case, which fell into speaks; and that my great St. Augustine says: 

Browning's hands in London. The confessor ' As the life was, so is its end.' " 
concluded his deposition as follows: "I do 



236 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Thenyerns of the particular hearth and home : 

1 use tarn not only by a comet's rush 2065 

No calu'ose's birth, — not by the grandeur, God — 

O' the St comfort, Christ. All this, how far away! 

What peilectation, meet for a minute's dream! — 

Till furthc'lrudging student trims his lamp, 

Probationis'oXv.XTiXch.} puts him in the place 2070 

How could y Grecian ; draws the patched gown close. 

You went throuj, should I fight, save or rule the world!" — 

Stopped there, cq^ontentedly, awakes 

The adversary, ^ry nothingness. 

For more than,i communion, pass content . . . 2075 

That was a si' 

A slip i' the,t, good God! Miserable me! 

" Charged 

Ur not Df. ^jjQjg \yoQV relates the lives of Greek and Roman heroes. 
Anothe*' 
Not V 
It = 



POMPILIA. 239 



VII. 
POMPILIA. 

[Pompilia, as she lies dying in the hospital, tells the story of her life with a sim- 
plicity, directness, and compassionateness that reveal a nature absolutely self-poised, 
— a nature that perceives the intrinsically right with unerring certainty in spite of 
Church, law, and public opinion, yet is forgiving toward those who had brought 
upon her such agonies of spirit, and can even accept the darkest crime of all as 
the means by which she will immediately attain the realization of perfect love.] 

I AM just seventeen years and five months old, 

And, if I lived one day more, three full weeks ; 

"T is writ so in the church's register, 

Lorenzo in Lucina, all my names 

At length, so many names for one poor child, 5 

— Francesca Camilla Vittoria Angela 

Pompilia Comparini, — laughable! 

Also "t is writ that I was married there 

Four years ago : and they will add, I hope, 

When they insert my death, a word or two, — 10 

Omitting all about the mode of death, — 

This, in its place, this which one cares to know^, 

That I had been a mother of a son 

Exactly two weeks. It will be through grace 

O" the Curate, not through any claim I have ; 15 

Because the boy was born at, so baptized 

Close to, the Villa, in the proper church : 

A pretty church, I say no word against, 

Yet stranger-like, — while this Lorenzo seems 

My own particular place, I always say. 20 

I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high 

As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,^ 

With half his body rushing from the wall, 

Eating the figure of a prostrate man — 

(To the right, it is, of entry by the door) 25 

An ominous sign to one baptized like me, 

Married, and to be buried there, I hope. 

And they should add, to have my life complete, 

He is a boy and Gaetan by name — ■ 

1 What the marblt lion meant : a lion The lions in the portico are, together with the 
preying on a man symbolized the severity of Campanile, the oldest part of the church of 
the Church toward the impenitent or heretical. San Lorenzo. 



240 THE RIXG AXD THE BOOK 

Gaetano, for a reason, — if the friar , 30 

Don Celestine will ask this grace for me 

Of Curate Ottoboni : he it was 

Baptized me : he remembers my whole life 

As I do his gray hair. 

All these few things 
I know are true, — will you remember them? 35 

Because time flies. The surgeon cared for me, 
To count my wounds, — twenty-two dagger-wounds, 
Five deadly, but I do not suffer much — 
Or too much pain, — and am to die to-night. 

Oh how good God is that my babe was born, 40 

— Better than born, baptized and hid away 

Before this happened, safe from being hurt ! 

That had been sin God could not well forgive : 

He was too young to smile and save himself. 

When they took, two days after he was born, 45 

My babe away from me to be baptized 

And hidden awhile, for fear his foe should find, — 

The country-woman, used to nursing babes, 

S.'d " Why take on so? where is the great loss? 

The^*^ next three weeks he will but sleep and feed, 50 

Only begin to smile at the month's end ; 

He would not know you, if you kept him here. 

Sooner than that ; so, spend three merry weeks 

Snug in the Villa, getting strong and stout, 

And then I bring him back to be your own, 55 

And both of you may steal to — we know where! " 

The month — there wants of it two weeks this day! 

Still, I half fancied when I heard the knock 

At the Villa in the dusk, it might prove she — 

Come to say " Since he smiles before the time, 60 

Why should I cheat you out of one good hour? 

Back I have brought him ; speak to him and judge!" 

Now I shall never see him ; what is worse, 

When he grows up and gets to be my age. 

He will seem hardly more than a great boy ; 65 

And if he asks " What was my mother like? " 

People may answer " Like girls of seventeen" — 

And how can he but think of this and that, 

Lucias, Marias, Sofias, who titter or blush 

When he regards them as such boys may do? 70 

Therefore I wish some one will please to say 

I looked already old though I was young ; 

Do I not . . . say, if you are by to speak . . . 

Look nearer twenty ? No more like, at least, 



POMPILIA. 241 

Girls who look arch or redden when boys laugh, 75 

Than the poor Virgin that I used to know 

At our street-corner in a lonely niche, — 

The babe, that sat upon her knees, broke off,— 

Thin white glazed clay, you pitied her the more : 

She, not the gay ones, always got my rose. 80 

How happy those are who know how to write! 

Such could write what their son should read in time, 

Had they a whole day to live out like me. 

Also my name is not a common name, 

" Pompilia," and may help to keep apart 85 

A little the thing I am from what girls are. 

But then how far away, how hard to find 

Will anything about me have become. 

Even if the boy bethink himself and ask! 

No father that he ever knew at all. 90 

Nor ever had — no, never had. I say! 

That is the truth. — nor any mother left, 

Out of the little two weeks that she lived, 

Fit for such memory as might assist : 

As good too as no family, no name, 95 

Not even poor old Pietro's name, nor hers, 

Poor kind unwise Violante, since it seems 

They must not be my parents any more. 

That is why something put it in my head 

To call the boy -Gaetano" — no old name 100 

For sorrow's sake ; I looked up to the sky 

And took a new saint ' to begin anew. 

One who has only been made saint — how long? 

Twenty-five years : so. carefuller, perhaps. 

To guard a namesake than those old saints grow, 105 

Tired out by this time, — see my own five saints! 

On second thoughts, I hope he will regard 

The history of me as what some one dreamed, 

And get to disbelieve it at the last : 

Since to myself it dwindles fast to that, 1 10 

Sheer dreaming and impossibility, — 

Just in four days too! All the seventeen years, 

Not once did a suspicion visit me 

How very different a lot is mine 

From any other woman's in the world. 115 

The reason must be. \ was by step and step 

It got to grow so terrible and strange. 

^ A new saint: St. Gaetan or Cajetan, 1480-1547, and was canonized by Clement X. 
founder of the order of Theatins, who lived in 1671. 
R 



242 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

These strange woes stole on tiptoe, as it were, 

Into my neighborhood and privacy, 

Sat down where I sat. laid them where I lay ; 120 

And I was found familiarized with fear, 

When friends broke in, held up a torch and cried 

" Why, you Pompilia in the cavern thus. 

How comes that arm of yours about a wolf? 

And the soft length, — lies in and out your feet 125 

And laps you round the knee, — a snake it is!" 

And so on. 

Well, and they are right enough, 
By the torch they hold up now : for first, observe, 
I never had a father, — no. nor yet 

A mother : my own boy can say at least 130 

" 1 had a mother whom I kept two weeks! " 
Not I, who little used to doubt . . . /doubt 
Good Pietro, kind Violante, gave me birth? 
They loved me always as I love my babe 
( — Nearly so, that is — quite so could not be — ) 135 

Did for me all I meant to do for him. 
Till one surprising day, three years ago, 
They both declared, at Rome, before some judge 
In some Court where the people flocked to hear, 
That really I had never been their child. 140- 

Was a mere castaway, the careless crime 
Of an unknown man, the crime and care too much 
Of a woman known too well, — little to these. 
Therefore, of whom I was the flesh and blood : 
What then to Pietro and Violante, both 145 

No more my relatives than you or you? 
Nothing to them! You know what they declared. 

So with my husband, — just such a surprise, 

Such a mistake, in that relationship! 

Everv one says that husbands love their wives, 150 

Guard them and guide them, give them happiness ; 

'T is duty, law, pleasure, religion : well. 

You see how much of this comes true in mine! 

People indeed would fain have somehow proved 

He was no husband : but he did not hear. 155 

Or would not wait, and so has killed us all. 

Then there is . . . only let me name one more! 

There is the friend, — men will not ask about, 

But tell untruths of. and give nicknames to. 

And think my lover, most surprise of all! 160 

Do only hear, it is the priest they mean, 

Giuseppe Caponsacchi : a priest — love. 



rOMPHJA. 243 

And love me! Well, yet people think he did. 

I am married, he has taken priestly vows, 

They know that, and yet go on, say, the same, 165 

" Yes, how he loves you ! " ** That was love " — they say. 

When anything is answered that they ask : 

Or else "No wonder you love him" — they say. 

Then they shake heads, jjity much, scarcely blame — 

As if we neither of us lacked excuse, 170 

And anyhow are punished to the full. 

And downright love atones for everything! 

Nay, I heard read out in the public Court 

Before the judge, in presence of my friends. 

Letters 't was said the priest had sent to me, 175 

And other letters sent him by myself. 

We being lovers! 

Listen what this is like! 
When I was a mere child, my mother . . . that 's 
Violante, you must let me call her so 

Nor waste time, trying to unlearn tlie word . . . 180 

She brought a neighbor's child of my own age 
To play with me of rainy afternoons ; 
And, since there hung a tapestry on the wall.^ 
We two agreed to find each other out 

Among the figures. *' Tisbe, that is you, 185 

With lialf-moon on your hair-knot, spear in hand, 
Flying, but no wings, only the great scarf 
Blown to a bluish rainbow at your back : 
Call off your hound and leave the stag alone! " 
" — And there are you, Pompilia, such green leaves 190 

Flourishing out of your five finger ends. 
And all the rest of you so brown and rough : 
Why is it you are turned a sort of tree?" 
You know the figures never were ourselves 
Though we nicknamed them so. Thus, all my life, — 195 
As well what was, as what, like this, was not. — 
Looks old, fantastic and impossible : 
I touch a fairy thing that fades and fades. 
— Even to my babe! I thought, when he was born, 
Something began for once that would not end, 200 

Nor change into a laugli at me, but stay 
For evermore, eternally quite mine. 
Well, so he is, — but yet they bore him off. 
The third day, lest my husband should lay traps 
And catch him, and by means of him catch me. 205 

Since they have saved him so, it was well done : 

' A tapestry on the wall : this tapestry evidently represented Diana hunting a stag 
and hamadryads, or tree nymphs. 



244 THE RIN'G AND THE BOOK. 

Yet thence comes such confusion of what was 

With what will be, — that late seems long ago, 

And, what years should bring round, already come, 

Till even he withdraws into a dream 210 

As the rest do : I fancy him grown great, 

Strong, stern, a tall young man who tutors me. 

Frowns with the others '• Poor imprudent child! 

Why did you venture out of the safe street? 

Why go so far from help to that lone house? 215 

Why open at the whisper and the knock?" 

Six days ago when it was New Year's-day, 

We bent above the tire and talked of him, 

What he should do when he was grown and great. 

Violante, Pietro, each had given the arm 220 

I leant on, to walk by, from couch to chair 

And fireside, — laughed, as I lay safe at last, 

" Pompilia's march from bed to board is made, 

Pompilia back again and with a babe, 

Shall one day lend his arm and help her walk!" 225 

Then we all wished each other more New Years. 

Pietro began to scheme — '' Our cause is gained ; 

The law is stronger than a wicked man : 

Let him henceforth go his way, leave us ours! 

We will avoid the city, tempt no more 230 

The greedy ones by feasting and parade, — 

Live at the other villa, we know where. 

Still farther off, and we can watch the babe 

Grow fast in the good air ; and wood is cheap 

And wine sincere outside the city gate. 235 

I still have two or three old friends will grope 

Their way along the mere half-mile of road, 

With staff and lantern on a moonless night 

When one needs talk : they ll find me, never fear, 

And I '11 find them a flask of the old sort yet! " 240 

Violante said " You chatter like a crow : 

Pompilia tires o' the tattle, and shall to bed : 

Do not too much the first day, — somewhat more 

To-morrow, and, the next, begin the cape 

And hood and coat! I have spun wool enough." 245 

Oh what a happy friendly eve was that ! 

And, next day, about noon, out Pietro went — 

He was so happy and would talk so much. 

Until Violante pushed and laughed him forth 

Sight-seeing in the cold, — " So much to see 250 

r the churches! Swathe your throat three times! " she cried, 

" And, above all, beware the slippery ways, 



POMPILIA. 245 

And bring us all the news by supper-time!"' 

He came back late, laid by cloak, staff and hat, 

Powdered so thick with snow it made us laugh, 255 

Rolled a great log upon the ash o' the hearth, 

And bade Violante treat us to a tlask, 

Because he had obeyed her faitiifully. 

Gone sigiU-see through the seven, and found no church 

To his mind like San Giovanni ^ — "There's the fold, 260 

And all the sheep together, big as cats! 

And such a shepherd, half the size of life. 

Starts up and hears the angel" — when, at the door, 

A tap : we started up : you know the rest. 

Pietro at least had done no harm, I know ; 265 

Nor even Violante, so much harm as makes 

Such revenge lawful. Certainly she erred — 

Did wrong, how shall I dare say otherwise? — 

In telling that first falsehood, buying me 

From mv poor faulty mother at a price, 270 

To pass off upon Pietro as his child. 

If one should take my babe, give him a name, 

Say he was not Gaetano and my own, 

But that some other woman made his mouth 

And hands and feet, — how very false were tliat! 275 

No good could come of that ; and all harm did. 

Vet if a stranger were to represent 

*• Needs must you either give your babe to me 

And let me call him mine for evermore. 

Or let your husband get him " — ah, my God, 280 

That were a trial I refuse to face! 

Well, just so here : it proved wrong but seemed right 

To poor V'^iolante — for there lay, she said. 

My poor real dying mother in her rags. 

Who put me from her with the life and all, 285 

Poverty, pain, shame and disease at once, 

To die the easier by what price I fetched — 

Also (I hope) because I should be spared 

Sorrow and sin, — why may not that have helped? 

My father, — he was no one. any one, — -90 

The worse, the likelier, — call him — he who came, 

Was wicked for his pleasure, went his way, 

And left no trace to track by ; there remained 

Nothing but me, the unnecessary life. 

To catch up or let fall, — and yet a thing 295 

' .Taw Giovanni: this church is built upon dates from the time of Constantine, and is 
the site of the ancient palace of Plautius Lat- first in rank of the five patriarchal churches, 
eranus, hence it is called " The Lateran." It 




246 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

She could make happy, be made happy with, 
This poor Violante, — who would frown thereat ? 

Well, God, you see! God plants us where we grow. 
' It is not that because a bud is born 
At a wild briar's end, full i' the wild beast's way, 300 

We ought to pluck and put it out of reach 
On the oak-tree top, — say "There the bud belongs!" 
She thought, moreover, real lies were lies told 
For harm's sake ; whereas this had good at heart. 
Good for my mother, good for me, and good 305 

For Pietro who was meant to love a babe, 
And needed one to .make his life of use, 
Receive his house and land when he should die. 
Wrong, wrong and always wrong! how plainly wrong! 
For see, this fault kept pricking, as faults do, 310 

All the same at her heart : this falsehood hatched, 
She could not let it go nor keep it fast. 
She told me so, — the first time I was found 
Locked in her arms once more after the pain. 
When the nuns let me leave them and go home, 315 

And both of us cried all the cares away, — 
This it was set her on to make amends. 
This brought about the marriage — simply this! 
Do let me speak for her you blame so much! 
When Paul, my husband's brother, found me out, 320 

Heard there was wealth for who should marry me, 
So, came and made a speech to ask my hand 
For Guido, — she, instead of piercing straight 
Through the pretence to the ignoble truth. 
Fancied she saw God's very finger point, 325 

Designate just the time for planting me 
(The wild-briar slip she plucked to love and wear) 
In soil where I could strike real root, and grow. 
And get to be the thing I called myself: 

For, wife and husband are one Hesh, God says, 330 

And I, whose parents seemed such and were none. 
Should in a husband have a husband now. 
Find nothing, this time, but was what it seemed, 
— All truth and no confusion any more. 

I know she meant all good to me, all pain 335 

To herself, — since how could it be aught but pain. 
To give me up, so, from her very breast. 
The wilding flower-tree-branch that, all those years, 
She had got used to feel for and find fi.xed? 
She meant well : has it been so ill i' the main? 340 

That is but fair to ask : one cannot judge 
Of what has been the ill or well of life. 



rOMPILIA. 247 

The day that one is dying. — sorrows change 

Into not altogether sorrow-like; 

1 do see strangeness but scarce misery, 345 

Now it is over, and no danger more. 

My child is safe ; there seems not so much pain. 

It comes, most like, that I am just absolved. 

Purged of the past, the foul in me, washed fair, — 

One cannot both have and not have, you know, — 350 

Being right now, I am happy and color things. 

Yes, everybody that leaves life sees all 

Softened and bettered : so with other sights : 

To me at least was never evening yet 

But seemed far beautifuller than its day, 355 

For past is past. 

There was a fancy came. 
When somewhere, in the journey with my friend, 
We stepped into a hovel to get food ; 
And there began a yelp here, a bark there, — 
Misunderstanding creatures that were wroth 360 

And vexed themselves and us till we retired. 
The hovel is life : no matter what dogs bit 
Or cats scratched in the hovel I break from. 
All outside is lone field, moon and such peace — 
Flowing in, filling up as with a sea 365 

Whereon comes Someone, walks fast on the white, 
Jesus Christ's self, Don Celestine declares. 
To meet me and calm all things back again. 

Beside, up to my marriage, thirteen years 

Were, each day, happy as the day was long : 370 

This may have made the change too terrible. 

I know that when Violante told me first 

The cavalier — she meant to bring next morn. 

Whom I must also let take, kiss my hand — 

Would be at San Lorenzo the same eve 375 

And marry me, — >vhich over, we should go 

Home both of us without him as before. 

And, till she bade speak, I must hold my tongue, 

Such being the correct way with girl-brides. 

From whom one word would make a father blush, — 380 

I know, I say, that when she told me this, 

— Well, I no more saw sense in what she said 

Than a lamb does in people clipping wool ; 

Only lay down and let myself be clipped. 

And when next day the cavalier who came — 3^5 

(Tisbe had told me that the slim young man 

With wings at head, and wings at feet, and sword 



248 THE RING AiVD THE BOOK. 

Threatening a monster, in our tapestry, 

Would eat a girl else, — was a cavalier i) 

When he proved Guido Franceschini, — old 390 

And nothing like so tall as I myself, 

Hook-nosed and yellow in a bush of beard, 

Much like a thing I saw on a boy's wrist. 

He called an owl and used for catching birds, — 

And when he took my hand and made a smile — 395 

Why, the uncomfortableness of it all 

Seemed hardly more important in the case 

Than, — when one gives you, say, a coin to spend, — 

Its newness or its oldness ; if the piece 

Weigh properly and buy you what you wish, 400 

No matter whether you get grime or glare! 

Men take the coi«, return you grapes and figs. 

Here, marriage was the coin, a dirty piece 

Would purchase me the praise of those I loved : 

About what else should I concern myself? 405 

So, hardly knowing what a husband meant, 

I supposed this or any man would serve, 

No whit the worse for being so uncouth : 

For I was ill once and a doctor came 

With a great ugly hat, no plume thereto. 410 

Black jerkin and black buckles and black sword, 

And white sharp beard over the ruff in front, 

And oh so lean, so sour-faced and austere! — 

Who felt my pulse, made me put out my tongue. 

Then oped a phial, dripped a drop or two 415 

Of a black bitter something. — I was cured! 

What mattered the fierce beard or the grim face? 

It was the physic beautified the man. 

Master Malpichi,- — never met his match 

In Rome, they said, — so ugly all the same! 420 

However, I was hurried through a storm. 

Next dark eve of December's deadest day — 

How it rained! — through our street and the Lion's-mouth ^ 

And the bit of Corso, — cloaked round, covered close, 

I was like something strange or contraband, — 425 

Into blank San Lorenzo, up the aisle. 

My mother keeping hold of me so tight, 

I fancied we were come to see a corpse 

^ Cavalier : Perseus rescuing Andromeda is probably meant. He became physician to 

from the sea-monster. Pope Innocent XII. (1628-1694). 

2 Master Malpichi : there was a great ^ Lion's-tnouth : the name of a street in 

physician named " Marcello Malpighi " who Rome. Via di Bocca di Lione. 



POMPILIA. 249 

Before the altar which she pulled me toward. 

There we found waiting an unpleasant priest 430 

Who proved the brother, not our parish friend, 

Hut one with mischief-making mouth and eye. 

Paul, whom I know since to my cost. And then 

I heard the heavy church-door lock out help 

Behind us : for the customary warmth, 435 

Two tapers shivered on the altar. " Quick — 

Lose no time! " cried the priest. And straightway down 

From . . . what 's behind the altar where he hid — 

Hawk-nose and yellowness and bush and all. 

Stepped Guido. caught my hand, and there was I 440 

O' the chancel, and the priest had opened book, 

Read here and there, made me say that and this, 

And after, told me I was now a wife, 

Honored indeed, since Christ thus weds the Church, 

And therefore turned he water into wine, 445 

To show I should obey my spouse like Christ. 

Then the two slipped aside and talked apart, 

And I, silent and scared, got down again 

And joined my mother who was weeping now. 

Nobody seemed to mind us any more, 450 

And botli of us on tiptoe found our way 

To the door which was unlocked by this, and wide. 

When we were in the street, the rain had stopped, 

All things looked better. At our own house-door, 

Violante whispered "No one syllable 455 

To Pietro! Girl-brides never breathe a word!" 

" — Well treated to a wetting, draggle-tails!" 

Laughed Pietro as he opened — '• Very near 

You made me brave the gutter's roaring sea 

To carry otf from roost old dove and young, 460 

Trussed up in church, the cote, by me. the kite! 

What do these priests mean, praying folk to death 

On stormy afternoons, with Christmas close 

To wash our sins off nor require the rain?" 

Violante gave my hand a timely squeeze, 465 

Madonna saved me from immodest speech, 

1 kissed him and was quiet, being a bride. 

When I saw nothing more, the next three weeks, 

Of Guido — " Nor the Church sees Christ" thought I : 

'• Nothing is changed however, wine is wine 470 

And water only water in our house. 

Nor did I see that ugly doctor since 

That cure of the illness : just as I was cured, 

I am married, — neither scarecrow will return." 

Three weeks, I chuckled — " How would Giulia stare, 475 



250 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And Tecla smile and Tisbe laugh outright, 

Were it not impudent for brides to talk ! " — 

Until one morning, as I sat and sang 

At the broidery-frame alone i' the chamber, — loud 

Voices, two. three together, sobbings too, 480 

And my name, "Guido," '"Paolo," flung like stones 

From each to the other! In I ran to see. 

There stood the very Guido and the priest 

With sly face, — formal but nowise afraid, — 

While Pietro seemed all red and angry, scarce 485 

Able to stutter out his wrath in words ; 

And this it was that made my mother sob. 

As he reproached her — "You have murdered us, 

Me and yourself and this our child beside!" 

Then Guido interposed " Murdered or not, 490 

Be it enough your child is now my wife! 

1 claim and come to take her." Paul put in, 

"Consider — kinsman, dare I term you so? — 

What is the good of your sagacity 

Except to counsel in a strait like this? 495 

1 guarantee the parties man and wife 

Whetiier you like or loathe it, bless or ban. 

May spilt milk be put back within the bowl, — 

The done thing, undone? You, it is, we look 

For counsel to, you fitliest will advise! 500 

Since milk, though spilt and spoilt, does marble good, 

Better we down on knees and scrub the floor. 

Than sigh, • the waste would make a syllabub! ' 

Help us so turn disaster to account, 

So predispose the groom, he needs shall grace 505 

The bride with favor from the very first, 

Not begin marriage an embittered man ! " 

He smiled, — the game so wholly in his hands! 

While fast and faster sobbed V^iolante — "Ay, 

All of us murdered, past averting now! 510 

O my sin, O my secret! " and such like. 



Then I began to half surmise the truth ; 

Something had happened, low, mean, underhand, 

False, and my mother was to blame, and I 

To pity, whom all spoke of, none addressed : 515 

I was the chattel that had caused a crime. 

I stood mute, — those who tangled must untie 

The embroilment. Pietro cried "Withdraw, my child! 

She is not helpful to the sacrifice 

At this stage, — do 3'ou want the victim by 520 

While you discuss the value of her blood? 



POM PI LI A. 25 X 



For her sake, I consent to hear you talk : 
Go, child, and pray God help the innocent!" 



I did go and was praying God, when came 

Violante, with eyes swollen and red enough, 525 

But movement on her mouth for make-believe 

Matters were somehow getting right again. 

She bade me sit down by her side and hear. 

" You are too young and cannot understand. 

Nor did your father understand at first. 530 

I wished to benefit all three of us. 

And when he failed to take my meaning, — why, 

I tried to have my way at unaware — 

()l:)tained him the advantage he refused. 

As if I put before him wholesome food 535 

Instead of broken victual, — he finds change 

r the viands, never cares to reason why, 

But falls to blaming me, would fiing the plate 

From window, scandalize the neighborhood, 

Even while he smacks his lips, — men's way, my child! 540 

But either you have prayed him unperverse 

Or I have talked him back into his wits : 

And Paolo was a help in time of need, — - 

Guido, not much — my child, the way of men! 

A i)riest is more a woman than a man, 545 

And Paul did wonders to persuade. In short. 

Yes, he was wrong, your father sees and says ; 

My scheme was wortli attempting : and bears fruit, 

Gives you a husband and a noble name, 

A palace and no end of pleasant things. 550 

What do you care about a handsome youth? 

They are so volatile, and tease their wives! 

This is the kind of man to keep the house. 

We lose no daughter, — gain a son, that's all : 

For 'tis arranged we never separate, 555 

Nor miss, in our gray time of life, the tints 

Of you that color eve to match with morn. 

In good or ill, we share and share alike. 

And cast our lots into a common lap. 

And all three die together as we lived! 560- 

Only, at Arezzo, — that "s a Tuscan town, 

Not so large as this noisy Rome, no doubt, 

But older far and finer much, say folk. — 

In a great palace where you will be queen. 

Know the Arciibishop and the (Governor, 565 

And we see homage done you ere we die. 

Therefore. Ije good and pardon! " — " Pardon what? 



252 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

You know things, I am very ignorant : 
All is right if you only will not cry ! " 

And so an end! Because a blank begins 570 

From when, at the word, she kissed me hard and hot, 

And took me back to where my father leaned 

Opposite Guido — who stood eyeing him. 

As eyes the butcher the cast panting ox 

That feels his fate is come, nor struggles more, — 575 

While Paul looked archly on, pricked brow at whiles 

With the pen-point as to punish triumph there, — 

And said •' Count Guido, take your lawful wife 

Until death part you! " 

All since is one blank, 
Over and ended ; a terrific dream. 580 

It is the good of dreams — so soon they go! 
Wake in a horror of heart-beats, -you may — 
Cry ''The dread thing will never from my thoughts!" 
Still, a few daylight doses of plain life. 

Cock-crow and sparrow-chirp, or bleat and bell 585 

Of goats that trot by, tinkling, to be milked ; 
And when you rub your eyes awake and wide, 
Where is the harm o' the horror? Gone! So here. 
I know I wake, — but from what ? Blank, I say ! 
This is the note of evil : for good lasts. 590 

Even when Don Celestine bade " Search and find! 
For your souPs sake, remember what is past. 
The better to forgive it," — all in vain! 
What was fast getting indistinct before, 

Vanished outright. By special grace perhaps, 595 

Between that first calm and this last, four years 
Vanish, — one quarter of my life, you know. 
I am held up, amid the nothingness. 
By one or two truths only — thence I hang. 
And there I live, — the rest is death or dream, 600 

All but those points of my support. I think 
Of what I saw at Rome once in the Square 
O' the Spaniards.! opposite the Spanish House : 
There was a foreigner had trained a goat, 

A shuddering white woman of a beast, 605 

To climb up, stand straight on a pile of sticks 
Put close, which gave the creature room enough : 
When she was settled there he, one by one. 
Took away all the sticks, left just the four 

^Square o the Spaniards: Piazza di Spagne is in the centre of the strangers' 
quarter in Rome. 



POM PI LI A. 253 

Whereon the little hoofs did really rest, 610 

There she kept firm, all underneath was air. 

So. what I hold by, are my prayer to God, 

My hope, that came in answer to the prayer. 

Some hand would interpose and save me — hand 

Which proved to be my friend's hand: and, — blest bliss, — 615 

That fancy which began so faint at first, 

That thrill of dawn's suffusion through my dark, 

Which I perceive was promise of my child, 

The light his unborn lace sent long before, — 

God's way of breaking the good news to flesh. 620 

That is all left now of those four bad years. 

Don Celestine urged " But remember more! 

Other men's faults may help me find your own. 

I need the cruelty e.xposed. explained. 

Or how can I advise you to forgive?" 625 

He thought I could not properly forgive 

Unless I ceased forgetting, — which is true: 

For, bringing back reluctantly to mind 

My husband's treatment of me, — by a light 

That "s later than my life-time, I review 630 

And comprehend much and imagine more, 

And have but little to forgive at last. 

For now, — be fair and say, — is it not true 

He was ill-used and cheated of his hope 

To get enriched by marriage? Marriage gave 635 

Me and no money, broke the compact so : 

He had a right to ask me on those terms. 

As Pietro and Violante to declare 

They would not give me : so the bargain stood : 

They broke it, and he felt himself aggrieved, 640 

Became unkind with me to punish them. 

Tiiey said 't was he began deception first. 

Nor, in one point whereto he pledged himself, 

Kept promise : w^hat of that, suppose it were? 

Echoes die off, scarcely reverberate 645 

Forever, — why sliould ill keep echoing ill. 

And never let our ears ha\'e done with noise? 

Then my poor parents took tlie violent way 

To thwart him, — he must needs retaliate, — wrong, 

Wrong, and all wrong, — better say, all blind! 650 

As I myself was, tliat is sure, who else 

Had understood the mystery : for his wife 

Was Dound in some sort to help somehow there. 

It .seems as if I might have interposed, 

Blunted the edge of their resentment so, 655 

Since he vexed me because thev first vexed him ; 

" I will entreat them to desist, submit. 



254 THE RING AXD THE BOOK. 

Give him the money and be poor in peace, — 
Certainly not go tell the world : perhaps 
He will grow quiet with his gains." 

Yes, say 660 

Something to this effect and you do well! 
But then you have to see first : I was blind. 
That is the fruit of all such wormy ways. 
The indirect, the unapproved of God : 

You cannot find their author's end and aim, 665 

Not even to substitute your good for bad, 
Your straight for the irregular ; you stand 
Stupefied, profitless, as cow or sheep 
That miss a man's mind, anger him just twice 
By trial at repairing the first fault. 670 

Thus, when he blamed me. " You are a coquette, 
A lure-owl posturing to attract birds. 
You look love-lures at theatre and church. 
In walk, at window! " — that, 1 knew, was false: 
But why he charged me falsely, whither sought 675 

To drive me by such charge, — how could I know? 
So, unaware, I only made things worse. 
I tried to soothe him by abjuring walk. 
Window, church , theatre, for good and all, 
As if he had been in earnest : that, you know, 680 

Was nothing like the object of his charge. 
Yes. when I got my maid to supplicate 
The priest, whose name she read when she would read 
Those feigned false letters I was forced to hear 
Though I could read no word of, — he should cease 685 

Writing, — nay, if he minded prayer of mine, 
Cease from so much as even pass the street 
Whereon our house looked, — in my ignorance 
1 was just thwarting Guide's true intent ; 

Which was, to bring about a wicked change 690 

Of sport to earnest, tempt a thoughtless man 
To write indeed, and pass the house, and more, 
Till both of us were taken in a crime. 
He ought not to have wished me thus act lies. 
Simulate folly : but, — wrong or right, the wish, — 695 

I failed to apprehend its drift. How plain 
It follows, — if I fell into such fault. 
He also may have overreached the mark. 
Made mistake, by perversity of brain, 

r the whole sad strange plot, the grotesque intrigue 700 

To make me and my friend unself ourselves. 
Be other man and woman than we were! 
Think it out, you who have the time! for me, — 



POM/'/LIA. 255 

I cannot say less ; more I will not say. 

Leave it to God to cover and undo! 705 

Only, my dulness should not prove too much! 

— Not prove that in a certain other point 
Wlierein my husband blamed me, — and you blame, 
If I interpret smiles and shakes of liead, — 

1 was dull too. Oh, if I dared but speak! 710 

.Must I speak? I am blamed that I forwent 

A way to make my husband's favor come. 

That is true : I was firm, withstood, refused . . . 

— Women as you are, how can I find the words? 

I felt there was just one thing Guido claimed 715 

I had no right to give nor he to take ; 
We being in estrangement, soul from soul : 
Till, when I sought help, the Archbishop smiled, 
Inquiring into privacies of life, 

— Said I was blameable — (he stands for God) 720 
Nowi.se entitled to exemption there. 

Then I obeyed, — as surely had obeyed 

Were the injunction " Since your husband bids. 

Swallow the burning coal he proffers you! " 

But I did wrong, and he gave wrong advice • 725 

Though he were thrice Archbishop, — that, I know! — 

Now I have got to die and see things clear. 

Remember I was barely twelve years old — 

A child at marriage : I was let alone 

For weeks, I told you, lived my child-life still 730 

Even at Arezzo, when I woke and found 

First . . . but I need not think of that again — 

Over and ended! Try and take the sense 

Of what I signify, if it must be so. 

After the first, my husband, for hate's sake, 735 

Said one eve, when the simpler cruelty 

Seemed somewhat dull at edge and fit to bear, 

" We have been man and wife six months almost : 

How long is this your comedy to last? 

Go this night to my chamber, not your own ! " 740 

At which word, I did rush — most true the charge — 

And gain the Archbishop's house — he stands for God — 

And fall upon my knees and clasp his feet. 

Praying him hinder what my estranged soul 

Refused to bear, though patient of the rest : 745 

"Place me within a convent," I implored — 

" Let me henceforward lead the virgin life 

•You praise in Her you bid me imitate!" 

What did he answer? " Folly of ignorance! 

Know, daughter, .circumstances make or mar 750 

Virginity, — 't is virtue or 't is vice. 



256 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

That which was glory in the Mother of God 

Had been, for instance, damnable in Eve 

Created to be mother of mankind. 

Had Eve, in answer to her Maker's speech 755 

' Be fruitful, multiply, replenish earth ' — 

Pouted ' But I choose rather to remain 

Single,' — why, she had spared herself forthwith 

Further probation by the apple and snake, 

Been pushed straight out of Paradise! For see — 760 

If motherhood be qualified impure, 

I catch you making God command Eve sin! 

— A blasphemy so like these Molinists', 

I must suspect you dip into their books." 

Then he pursued " 'T was in your covenant! " 765 

No! There my husband never used deceit. 

He never did by speech nor act imply 

" Because of our souls' yearning that we meet 

And mix in soul through flesh, which yours and mine 

Wear and impress, and make their visible selves, 770 

— All which means, for the love of you and me. 
Let us become one flesh, being one soul! " 

He only stipulated for the wealth ; 

Honest so far. But when he spoke as plain — 

Dreadfully honest also — " Since our souls 775 

Stand each from each, a whole world's width between, 

Give me the fleshly vesture I can reach 

And rend and leave just fit for hell to burn!" — 

Why, in God's name, for Guido's soul's own sake 

Imperilled by polluting mine, — I say, 780 

I did resist ; would I had overcome ! 

My heart died out at the Archbishop's smile ; 

— It seemed so stale and worn a way o" the world. 
As though 't were nature frowning — '-Here is Spring, 

The sun shines as he shone at Adam's fall, 785 

The earth requires that warmth reach everywhere : 

What, must your patch of snow be saved forsooth 

Because you rather fancy snow than flowers? " 

Something in this style he began with me. 

Last he said, savagely for a good man, 790 

" This explains why you call your husband harsh. 

Harsh to you, harsh to whom you love. God's Bread! 

The poor Count has to manage a mere child 

Whose parents leave untaught the simplest things 

Their duty was and privilege to teach, — 795 

Goodwives' instruction, gossips' lore : they laugh 

And leave the Count the task, — or leave it me!" 



f 



PO Ml' I LI A. 257 

Then I resolved to tell a frightful thing. 

" I am not ignorant, — know what I say, 

Declaring this is sought for hate, not love. 800 

Sir. you may hear things like almighty God. 

I tell you that my housemate, yes — the priest 

Mv husband's brother, Canon Girolamo — 

Has taught me what depraved and misnamed love 

Means, and what outward signs denote the sin, 805 

For he solicits me and says he loves, 

Tlie idle young priest with nought else to do. 

Mv husband sees this, knows this, and lets be. 

Is it your counsel I bear this beside? " 

" — More scandal, and against a priest this time! 810 

What, 'tis the Canon now?" — less snappishly — 

" Rise up, my child, for such a child you are. 

The rod were too advanced a punishment I 

Let's try the honeyed cake. A parable! 

'Without a parable spake He not to them.' 815 

There was a ripe round long black toothsome fruit. 

Even a tlower-tig, tlie prime boast of May : 

And, to the tree, said . . . either the spirit o' the fig, 

Or, if we bring in men, the gardener. 

Archbishop of the orchard — had I time 820 

To try o' the two which fits in best : indeed 

It might be the Creator's self, but then 

The tree should bear an apple, I suppose, — 

Well, anyhow, one with authority said 

• Ripe fig, burst skin, regale the fig-pecker — 825 

The bird whereof thou art a perquisite!' 

' Nay,' with a fiounce, replied the restif fig, 

' I much prefer to keep my pulp myself: 

He may go breakfastless and dinnerless, 

Supperless of one crimson seed, for me! ' 830 

So, back she flopped into her bunch of leaves. 

He flew off, left her, — did the natural lord, — 

And lo, three hundred thousand bees and wasps 

Found her out. feasted on her to the shuck : 

Such gain the fig's that gave its bird no bite! 835 

The moral, — fools elude their proper lot. 

Tempt other fools, get ruined all alike. 

Therefore go home, embrace your husband quick! 

Which if his Canon brother chance to see. 

He will the sooner back to book again." 840 

So, home I did go ; so, the worst befell : 
So, I had proof the Archbishop was just man, 
And hardly that, and certainly no more. 
For, miserable consequence to me, 
s 



2S8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

My husband's hatred waxed nor waned at all, 845 

His brother's boldness grew effrontery soon, 

And my last stay and comfort in myself 

Was forced from me : henceforth I looked to God 

Only, nor cared my desecrated soul 

Should have fair walls, gay windows for the world. 850 

God's glimmer, that came through the ruin-top. 

Was witness wh}' all lights were quenched inside : 

Henceforth I asked God counsel, not mankind'. 

So, when I made the effort, freed myself, 

They said — "No care to save appearance here! 855 

How cynic, — when, how wanton, were enough! " 

— Adding, it all came of my mother's life — 

My own real mother, whom I never knew. 

Who did wrong (if she needs must have done wrong) 

Through being all her life, not my four years, 860 

At mercy of the hateful : every beast 

O' the field was wont to break that fountain-fence. 

Trample the silver into mud so murk 

Heaven could not find itself reflected there. 

Now they cry " Out on her. who, plashy pool, 865 

Bequeathed turbidity and bitterness 

To the daughter-stream where Guido dipt and drank!" 

Well, since she had to bear this brand — let me! 

The rather do I understand her now. 

From my experience of what hate calls love. — - 870 

Much love might be in what their love called hate. 

If she sold . . . what they call, sold . . . me her child — 

1 shall believe she hoped in her poor heart 

That I at least might try be good and pure, 

Begin to live untempted. not go doomed 875 

And done with ere once found in fault, as she. 

Oh and, my mother, it all came to this ? 

Why should I trust those that speak ill of you. 

When I mistrust who speaks even well of them? 

Why, since all bound to do me good, did harm, 880 

May not you, seeming as you harmed me most. 

Have meant to do most good — and feed your child 

From bramble-bush, whom not one orchard-tree 

But drew bough back from, nor let one fruit fall ? 

This it was for you sacrificed your babe? 885 

Gained just this, giving your heart's hope away 

As I might give mine, loving it as you, 

If . . . but that never could be asked of me! 

There, enough! I have my support again. 



POM PI LI A. . 259 

Again the knowledge that my babe was, is, 890 

Will be mine only. Him, by death, I give 

Outright to God. without a further care, — 

But not to any parent in the world. — 

So to be safe : why is it we repine? 

What guardianship were safer could we choose? 895 

All human plans and projects come to nought : 

My life, and what I know of other lives, 

Prove that : no plan nor project! God shall care! 

And now you are not tired? How patient then 

All of you, — Oh yes, patient this long while 900 

Listening, and understanding, I am sure! 

Four days ago, when I was sound and well 

And like to live, no one would understand. 

People were kind, but smiled " And what of him. 

Your friend, whose tonsure the rich dark-brown hides ? 905 

There, there! — your lover, do we dream he was? 

A priest too — never were such naughtiness! 

Still, he thinks many a long think, never fear, 

After the shy pale lady, — lay so light 

For a moment in his arms, the lucky one! " 910 

And so on : wherefore should I blame you much? 

So we are made, such difference in minds. 

Such difference too in eyes that see the minds ! 

That man, you misinterpret and misprise — 

The glory of his nature, I had thought, 915 

Shot itself out in white light, blazed the truth 

Through every atom of his act with me : 

Yet where I point you, through the crystal shrine, 

Purity in quintessence, one dew-drop. 

You all descry a spider in the midst. 920 

One says ■' The head of it is plain to see," 

And one, "They are the feet by which I i'ldge," 

AH say, ''Those films were spun by nothing else." 

Then, I must lay my babe a^^•£^y with God. 

Nor think of him afrnir for gratitude. 925 

Yes, my last breath shall wholly spend itself 

In one attempt more to disperse the stain, 

The mist from other breath fond mouths have made, 

About a lustrous and pellucid soul : 

So that, when I am gone but sorrow stays, 930 

And people need assurance in their doubt 

If God yet have a servant, man a friend. 

The weak a saviour and tiie vile a foe, — 

Let him be present, by the name invoked, 

Giuseppe-Maria Caponsacchi! 



26o THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

There, 935 

Strength comes already with the utterance! 
I will remember once more for his sake 
The sorrow : for he lives and is belied. 
Could he be here, how he would speak for me I 

I had been miserable three drear years 940 

In that dread palace and lay passive now, 

When I first learned there could be such a man. 

Thus it fell : I was at a public play. 

In the last days of Carnival last March, 

Brought there I knew not why, but now know well. 945 

My husband put me where I sat, in front ; 

Then crouched down, breathed cold through me from behind, 

Stationed i' the shadow, — none in front could see, — 

I, it was, faced the stranger-throng beneath. 

The crowd with upturned faces, eyes one stare, 950 

Voices one buzz. I looked but to the stage, 

Whereon two lovers sang and interchanged 

" True life is only love, love only bliss : 

I love thee — thee I love!" then they embraced. 

I looked thence to the ceiling and the walls. — 955 

Over the crowd, those voices and those eyes, — 

My thoughts went through the roof and out, to Rome 

On wings of music, waft of measured words, — 

Set me down there, a happy child again 

Sure that to-nforrow would be festa-day, 960 

Hearing my parents praise past festas more, 

And seeing they were old if I was young. 

Yet wondering why they still would end discourse 

With " We must soon go, you abide your time, 

And, — might we haply see the proper friend 965 

Throw his arm over you and make you safe ! " 

Sudden I saw hun ; into my lap there fell 

A foolish twist of comfits, broke my dream 

And brought me from t'le air and laid me low, 

As ruined as the soaring bee that 's reached 970 

(So Pietro told me at the Villa once) 

By the dust-handful. There the comfits lay : 

I looked to see who flung them, and I faced 

This Caponsacchi, looking up in turn. 

Ere I could reason out why, I felt sure. 975 

Whoever flung them, his was not the hand, — 

Up rose the round face and good-natured grin 

Of one who, in effect, had played the prank, 

From covert close beside the earnest face, — 

Fat waggish Conti, friend of all the world. 980 



rOMPII.IA. 261 

He was my husband's cousin, privileged 
To throw the thing : the other, silent, grave, 
Solemn almost, saw me, as I saw him. 

There is a psalm Don Celestine recites, 

"Had I a dove's wings, how I fain would flee!" 985 

The psalm runs not " 1 hope, I pray for wings," — 

Not "If wings fall from heaven, I fix them fast," — 

Simply " How good it were to fly and rest, 

Have hope now, and one day expect content! 

How well to do what I shall never do! " 990 

So I said " Had there been a man like that, 

To lift me with his strength out of all strife 

Into the calm, how I could fly and rest! 

I have a keeper in the garden here 

Whose sole employment is to strike me low 995 

If ever I, for solace, seek the sun. 

Life means with me successful feigning death. 

Lying stone-like, eluding notice so. 

Foregoing here the turf and there the sky. 

Suppose that man had been instead of this! " 1000 

Presently Conti laughed into my ear, 

— Had tripped up to the raised place where I sat — 

"Cousin, I flung them brutishly and hard! 

Because you must be hurt, to look austere 

As Caponsacchi yonder, my tall friend 1005 

A-gazing now. Ah, Guido, you so close? 

Keep on your knees, do ! Beg her to forgive! 

My cornet^ battered like a cannon-ball. 

Good-bye, I'm gone!" — nor waited the reply. 

That night at supper, out my hu.sband broke, loio 

"Why was that throwing, that buffbonerv? 

Do you think I am your dupe? What man would dare 

Throw comfits in a stranger lady's lap? 

"T was knowledge of you bred such insolence 

In Caponsacchi ; he dared shoot the bolt, loir 

Using that Conti for his stalking-horse. 

How could you see him this once and no more, 

When he is always haunting hereabout 

At the street-corner or the palace-side. 

Publishing my shame and your impudence? 1020 

You are a wanton, — I a dupe, you think? 

O Christ, what hinders that I kill her quick? " 

Whereat he drew his sword and feigned a thrust. 

* Comet : a piece of paper twisted into a conical shape (such as is commonly used by grocers) . 



262 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

All this, now, — being not so strange to me, 

Used to such misconception day by day 1025 

And broken-in to bear, — 1 bore, this time, 

More quietly than woman should perhaps ; 

Repeated the mere truth and held my tongue. 

Then he said, " Since you play the ignorant, 

I shall instruct you. This amour, — commenced 1030 

Or finished or midway in act, all 's one, — 

'T is the town-talk ; so my revenge shall be. 

Does he presume because he is a priest ? 

I warn him that the sword I wear shall pink 

His lily-scented cassock through and through, 1035 

Next time I catch him underneath your eaves!" 

But he had threatened with the sword so oft 

And, after all, not kept his promise. All 

I said was " Let God save the innocent! 

Moreover death is far from a bad fate. 1040 

I shall go pray for you and me, not him ; 

And then I look to sleep, come death or, worse. 

Life." So, I slept. 

There may have elapsed a week, 
When Margherita, — called my waiting-maid, 
Whom it is said my husband found too fair — 1045 

Who stood and heard the charge and the reply, 
Who never once would let the matter rest 
From that night forward, but rang changes still 
On this the thrust and that the shame, and how 
Good cause for jealousy cures jealous fools, 1050 

And what a paragon was this same priest 
She talked about until I stopped my ears, — 
She said, •• A week is gone ; you comb your hair, 
Then go mope in a corner, cheek on palm, 
Till night comes round again, — so, waste a week 1055 

As if your husband menaced you in sport. 
Have not 1 some acquaintance with his tricks? 
Oh no, he did not stab the serving-man 
Who made and sang the rhymes about me once! 
For why? They sent him to the wars next day. io6c 

Nor poisoned he the foreigner, my friend 
Who wagered on the whiteness of my breast, — 
The swarth skins of our city in dispute : 
For, though he paid me proper compliment, 
The Count well knew he was besotted with 1065 

Somebody else, a skin as black as ink, 
(As all the town knew save my foreigner) 
He found and wedded presently, — ' Why need 



POMP/LI A. 263 

Better revenge?' — the Count asked. But what 's here? 

A priest that does not fight, and cannot wed, 1070 

Yet must be dealt with! If the Count took fire 

For the poor pastime of a minute, — me — 

Wliat were the conflagration for yourself, 

Countess and lady-wife and all the rest ? 

The priest will perish ; you will grieve too late: 1075 

So shall the city-ladies' handsomest 

Frankest and liberalest gentleman 

Die for you, to appease a scurvy dog 

Hanging's too good for. Is there no escape? 

Were it not simple Christian charity 1080 

To warn the priest be on his guard, — save him 

Assured death, save yourself from causing it? 

I meet him in the street. Give me a glove, 

A ring to show for token! Mum's the word!" 

I answered " If you were, as styled, my maid, 1085 

I would command you : as you are, you say, 

My husband's intimate, — assist his wife 

Who can do nothing but entreat '■ Be still! ' 

Even if you speak truth and a crime is planned, 

Leave help to God as I am forced to do! 1090 

There is no other help, or we should craze, 

Seeing such evil with no human cure. 

Reflect that God, who makes the storm desist, 

Can make an angry violent heart subside. 

Why should we venture teach Him governance? 1095 

Never address me on this subject more! " 

Next night she said " But I went, all the same, 

— Ay, saw your Caponsacchi in his house. 

And come back stuffed with news I must outpour. 

I told him ' Sir, my mistress is a stone : 1 100 

Why should you liarm her for no good you get? 

For you do harm her — prowl about our place 

With the Count never distant half the street. 

Lurking at every corner, would you look! 

'T is certain she has witched you with a spell. 1105 

Are there not other beauties at your beck? 

We all know. Donna This and Monna That 

Die for a glance of yours, yet here you gaze! 

Go make them grateful, leave the stone its cold!' 

And he — oh, lie turned first white and then red, I no 

And then — • To lier ])ehest I bow myself. 

Whom I love with my body and my soul : 

Only a word i' the bowing! See, I write 

One little word, no harm to see or hear! 



26^ THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Then, fear no further! ' This is what he wrote. 1115 

I know you cannot read. — therefore, let me! 
'My idol'.'"' . . . 

But I took it from her hand 
And tore it into shreds. " Why, join the rest 
Who harm me? Have I ever done you wrong? 
People have told me't is you wrong myself: 1120 

Let it suffice I either feel no wrong 
Or else forgive it, — yet you turn my foe! 
The others hunt me and you throw a noose! " 

She muttered " Have your wilful way!" I slept. 

Whereupon . . . no, I leave my husband out! 1125 

It is not to do him more hurt, I speak. 

Let it suffice, when misery was most. 

One day, I swooned and got a respite so. 

She stooped as I was slowly coming to, 

This Margherita, ever on my trace, 11 30 

And whispered — " Caponsacchi! " 

If I drowned, 
But woke afloat i' the wave with upturned eyes, 
And found their first sight was a star! I turned — 
For the first time, I let her have her will. 
Heard passively, — "The imposthume at such head, 1135 

One touch, one lancet-puncture would relieve, — 
And still no glance the good physician's way 
Who rids you of the torment in a trice! 
Still he writes letters you refuse to hear. 

He may prevent your husband, kill himself, 1 140 

So desperate and all fordone is he! 
Just hear the pretty verse he made to-day! 
A sonnet from Mirtillo.i '■ Peerless fair . . .' 
All poetry is difficult to read. 

— The sense of it is, anyhow, he seeks 1145 

Leave to contrive you an escape from hell, * 

And for that purpose asks an interview. 
I can write, I can grant it in your name, 
Or, what is better, lead you to his house. 

Your husband dashes you against the stones ; 11 50 

This man would place each fragment in a shrine : 
You hate him, love your husband ! " 

I returned 

' Mirtillo : evidently used as the name of a pastoral lover who has written a sonnet to 
his love. 



POM PI LI A. 265 

" It is not true I love my husband, — no, 

Nor hate this man. I listen while you speak, 

— Assured that what you say is false, the same : 1 155 

Much as when once, to me a little child, 

A rough gaunt man in rags, with eyes on fire, 

A crowd of boys and idlers at his heels. 

Rushed as I crossed the Square, and held my head 

In his two hands, ' Here's she will let me speak! 1 160 

You little girl, whose eyes do good to mine, 

I am the Pope, am Sextus. now the Sixth ; 

And that Twelfth Innocent, proclaimed to-day, 

Is Lucifer disguised in human flesh! 

The angels met in conclave, crowned me! ' — thus 1 165 

He gibbered and I listened ; but I knew 

All was delusion, ere folk interposed 

• Unfasten him, the maniac! ' Thus I know 

All your report of Caponsacchi false. 

Folly or dreaming; I have seen so much 1170 

By that adventure at the spectacle. 

The face I fronted that one first, last time : 

He would belie it by such words and thoughts. 

Therefore while yoii profess to show him me, 

1 ever see his own face. Get you gone! " 1 175 

'' — That will I, nor once open mouth again, — 

No, by Saint Joseph and the Holy Ghost! 

On your head be the damage, so adieu! " 

And so more days, more deeds 1 must forget, 

Till . . . what a strange thing now is to declare! 1180 

Since I say anything, say all if true! 

And how my life seems lengthened as to serve! 

It may be idle or inopportune. 

But, true? — why, what was all I said but truth, 

Even when I found that such as are untrue 1185 

Could only take the truth in through a lie? 

Now — I am speaking truth to the Truth's self: 

God will lend credit to my words this time. 

It had got half through April, I arose 

One vivid daybreak, — who had gone to bed 1190 

In the old way my wont those last three years. 

Careless until, the cup drained, I should die. 

The last sound in my ear, the over-night. 

Had been a something let drop on the sly 

In prattle ])y Margherita, '• Soon enough 1 195 

Gaieties end, now Easter's past : a week. 

And the Archbishop gets him back to Rome, — 

Every one leaves the town for Rome, this Spring, — 



266 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Even Caponsacchi, out of heart and hope, 

Resigns himself and follows with the tlock." 1200 

I heard this drop and drop like rain outside 

Fast-falling through the darkness while she spoke : 

So had I heard with like indifference. 

" And Michael's pair of wings will arrive first 

At Rome, to introduce the company, 1205 

And bear him from our picture where he fights 

Satan, — expect to have that dragon loose 

And never a defender! " — my sole thought 

Being still, as night came, " Done, another day! 

How good to sleep and so get nearer death!" — 12 10 

When, what, first thing at daybreak, pierced the sleep 

With a summons to me? Up I sprang alive. 

Light in me, light without me, everywliere 

Change! A broad yellow sunbeam was let fall 

From heaven to earth, — a sudden drawbridge lay, 12 15 

Along which marched a myriad merry motes. 

Mocking the flies that crossed them and recrossed 

In rival dance, companions new-born too. 

On the house-eaves, a dripping shag of weed 

Shook diamonds on each dull gray lattice-square. 1220 

As first one, then another bird leapt by. 

And light was off, and lo was back again. 

Always with one voice, — where are two such joys? — 

The blessed building-sparrow ! I stepped forth. 

Stood on the terrace, — o'er the roofs, such sky! 1225 

My heart sang, *' I too am to go away, 

I too have something I must care about. 

Carry away with me to Rome', to Rome! 

The bird brings hither sticks and hairs and wool. 

And nowhere else i' the world; what fly breaks rank, 1230 

Falls out of the procession that befits. 

From window here to window there, with all 

The world to choose, — so well he knows his course? 

I have my purpose and my motive too, 

My march to Rome, like any bird or fly! 1235 

Had I been dead! How right to be alive! 

Last night I almost prayed for leave to die. 

Wished Guido all his pleasure with the sword 

Or the poison, — poison, sword, was but a trick, 

Harmless, may God forgive him the poor jest! 1240 

My life is charmed, will last till 1 reach Rome! 

Yesterday, but for the sin, — ah, nameless be 

The deed I could have dared against myself! 

Now — see if I will touch an unripe fruit. 

And risk the health I want to have and use! 1 245 

Not to live, now, would be the wickedness, — 



POMFILfA. 267 

For life means to make haste and go to Rome 
And leave Arezzo. leave all woes at once!" 

Now, understand here, by no means mistake! 

Long ago had I tried to leave that house 1250 

When it seemed sucli procedure would stop sin ; 

And still failed more the more I tried — at first 

The Archbishop, as 1 told you, — next, our lord 

The Go\ernor, — indeed I found my way, 

I went to the great palace where he rules, 1255 

Though I knew well "t was he wiio, — when I gave 

A jewel or two, themselves had given me. 

Back to my parents, — since they wanted bread. 

They who had never let me want a nosegay, — he 

Spoke of the jail for felons, if they kept 1260 

What was first theirs, then mine, so doubly theirs, 

Though all the while my husband's most of all! 

1 knew well who had spoke the word wrought this : 

Yet, being in extremity, I fled 

To the Governor, as I say, — scarce opened lip 1265 

When — the cold cruel snicker close behind — 

Guido was on my trace, already there. 

Exchanging nod and wink for shrug and smile. 

And I — -pushed back to him and, for my pains 

Paid with . . . but wliy remember what is past ? 1270 

1 sought out a poor friar the people call 

The Roman, and confessed my sin which came 

Of their sin, — that fact could not l)e repressed, — 

The frightfulness of my despair in God : 

And, feeling, through the grate, his horror shake, 1275 

Implored him, '"Write for me who cannot write, 

Apprise my parents, make them rescue me! 

You bid me be courageous and trust God : 

Do you in turn dare somewhat, trust and write 

• Dear friends, who used to be my parents once, 1280 

And now declare you have no part in me. 

This is some riddle I want wit to solve, 

Since you must love me with no difference. 

Even suppose you altered, — there \s your hate, 

To ask for: hate of you two dearest ones 1285 

1 shall find iiker love than love found here. 

If husbands love their wives. Take me away 

And hate me as you do the gnats and fleas. 

Even the scorpions! How I shall rejoice!' 

Write that and save me!" And he promised— wrote 1290 

Or did not wTite ; things never changed at all : 

He was not like the Augustinian here! 

Last, in a desperation 1 appealed 



268 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

To friends, whoever wished me better days, 

To Guillichini, that 's of kin, — " What, I — 1295 

Travel to Rome with you? A flying gout 

Bids me deny my heart and mind my leg! " 

Then 1 tried Conti, used to brave — laugh back 

The louring thunder when his cousin scowled 

At me protected by his presence : "You — 1300 

Who well know what you cannot save me from, — 

Carry me off ! What frightens you, a priest ? " 

He shook his head, looked grave — "Above my strength! 

Guido has claws that scratch, shows feline teeth ; 

A formidabler foe than I dare fret : 1303 

Give me a dog to deal with, twice the size! 

Of course I am a priest and Canon too. 

But ... by the bye . . . though both, not quite so bold 

As he, my fellow-Canon, brother-priest. 

The personage in such ill odor here 13 10 

Because of the reports — pure birth o' the brain! 

Our Caponsacchi, he 's your true Saint George 

To slay the monster, set the Princess free. 

And have the whole High-Altar to himself; 

I always think so when 1 see that piece 13 15 

r the Pieve,^ that 's his church and mine, you know : 

Though you drop eyes at mention of his name!" 

That name had got to take a half-grotesque 

Half-ominous, wholly enigmatic sense. 

Like any by-word, broken bit of song 1320 

Born with a meaning, changed by mouth and mouth 

That mix it in a sneer or smile, as chance 

Bids, till it now means nought but ugliness 

And perhaps shame. 

— All this intends to say. 
That, over-night, the notion of escape 1325 

Had seemed distemper, dreaming ; and the name, — 
Not the man, but the name of him, thus made 
Into a mockery and disgrace, — why, she 
Who uttered it persistently, had laughed, 

" I name his name, and there you start and wince 1330 

As criminal from the red tongs' touch!" — yet now, 
Now, as I stood letting morn bathe me bright. 
Choosing which butterfly should bear my news, — 
The white, the brown one, or that tinier blue, — 
The Margherita, I detested so, 1335 

• That piece i' the Pieve : At the high altar is a picture by Vasari of Saint George killing 
the dragon. 



FOMFILIA. 269" 

In she came — " The fine day. the good Spring time! 

What, up and out at window? That is best. 

No thought of Caponsacchi? — who stood there 

All night on one leg, like the sentry crane, 

Under the pelting of your water-spout — 1340 

Looked last look at your lattice ere he leave 

Our city, bury his dead hope at Rome. 

Ay, go to looking-glass and make you fine. 

While he may die ere touch one least loose hair 

You drag at with the comb in such a rage! " 1345 

1 turned — "Tell Caponsacchi he may come!" 

" Tell him to come? Ah, but, for charity. 

A truce to fooling! Come? What, — come this eve? 

Peter and Paul! But 1 see through the trick! 

Yes, come, and take a flower-pot on his head, 1350 

Flung from your terrace ! No joke, sincere truth ? " 

How plainly I perceived hell flash and fade 

O' the face of her, — the doubt that first paled joy. 

Then, final reassurance I indeed 

Was caught now, never to be free again! 13S5 

What did I care? — who felt myself of force 

To play with silk, and spurn the horsehair-springe. 

.. But — do you know that I have bade him come, 

And in your name? I presumed so much. 

Knowing the thing you needed in your heart. 1360 

But somehow — what had I to show in proof? 

He would not come : half-promised, that was all, 

And wrote the letters you refused to read. 

What is the message that shall move him now?" 

" After the Ave Maria, at first dark, 13^5 

I W4ll be standing on the terrace, say! " 

" I would I had a good long lock of hair 
Should prove I was not lying! Never mind! " 

Off she went — "May he not refuse, that's all — 
Fearing a trick! "' 

I answered, '• He will come."' 1370 

And, all day, I sent prayer like incense up 
To God the strong. God the beneficent, 
God ever mindful in all strife and strait. 
Who, for our own good, makes the need extreme, 



270 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Till at the last He puts forth might and saves. 1375 

An old rhyme came into my head and rang 

Of how a virgin, for the faith of God, 

Hid herself, from the Paynims that pursued. 

In a cave's heart ; until a thunderstone. 

Wrapped in a flame, revealed the couch and prey 1380 

And they laughed — " Thanks to lightning, ours at last! " 

And she cried " Wrath of God, assert His love! 

Servant of God, thou fire, befriend His child! " 

And lo, the fire she grasped at, fixed its flash, 

Lav in her hand a calm cold dreadful sword 1385 

She brandished till pursuers strewed the ground, 

So did the souls within them die away, 

As o'er the prostrate bodies, sworded, safe. 

She walked forth to the solitudes and Christ : 

So should I grasp the lightning and be saved! 1390 

And still, as the day wore, the trouble grew 

Whereby I guessed there would be born a star, 

Until at an intense throe of the dusk, 

1 started up, was pushed, I dare to say, 

Out on the terrace, leaned and looked at last 1395 

Where the deliverer waited me : the same 

Silent and solemn face, I first descried 

At the spectacle, confronted mine once more. 

So was that minute twice vouchsafed me, so 

The manhood, wasted then, was still at watch 1400 

To save me yet a second time : no change 

Here, though all else changed in the changing world! 

I spoke on the instant, as my duty bade. 

In some such sense as this, whatever the phrase. 

" Friend, foolish words were borne from you to me ; 1405 

Your soul behind them is the pure strong wind. 

Not dust and feathers which its breath may bear : 

These to the witless seem the wind itself, 

Since proving thus the first of it they feel. 

If by mischance you blew offence my way, 1410 

The straws are dropt, the wind desists no whit. 

And how such strays were caught up in the street 

And took a motion from you, why inquire ? 

I speak to the strong soul, no weak disguise. 

If it be truth, — why should I doubt it truth ? — 141 5 

You serve God specially, as priests are bound. 

And care about me, stranger as I am. 

So far as wish my good, — that miracle 



POMP/LIA. 271 

I take to intimate He wills you serve 

By saving me. —what else can He direct? 1420 

Here is the service. Since a long while now, 

1 am in course of being put to death : 

While death concerned nothing but me. I bowed 

The head and bade, in heart, my husband strike. 

Now I imperil something more, it seems, 1425 

Something that's trulier me than this myself. 

Something I trust in God and you to save. 

You go to Rome, they tell me : take me there, 

Put me back with my people I " 

He replied — 
The first word I heard ever from his lips, 1430 

All himself in it, — an eternity 
Of speech, to match the immeasurable depth 
O' the soul that then broke silence — " I am yours." 

So did the star rise, soon to lead my step. 

Lead on, nor pause before it should stand still 1435 

Above the House o' the Babe, — my babe to be, 

That knew me first and thus made me know him. 

That had his right of life and claim on mine, 

And would not let me die till he was born, 

But pricked me at the heart to save us both, 144° 

Saying "Have you the will? Leave God the wav!" 

And the way was Caponsacchi — '• mine," thank God! 

He was mine, he is mine, he will be mine. 

No pause i' the leading and the light! I know, 

Next night there was a cloud came, and not he : 1445 

But I prayed through the darkness till it broke 

And let him shine. The second night, he came. 

" The plan is rash ; the project desperate : 

In such a flight needs must I risk your life, 

Give food for falsehood, folly or mistake, 1450 

Ground for your husband's rancor and revenge" — 

So he began again, with the same face. 

I felt that, the same loyalty — one star 

Turning now red that was so white before — 

One service apprehended newly: just 1455 

A word of mine and there the white was back! 

" No, friend, for you will take me! 'T is yourself 

Risk all, not I, — who let you. for I trust 

In the compensating great God: enough! 

I know you : when is it that you will come? " 1460 



272 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

"To-morrow at the day's dawn."' Then I heard 
What I should do : how to prepare for flight 
And where to fly. 

That niglit my husband bade 
" — You, whom I loathe, beware you break my sleep 
This whole night! Couch beside me like the corpse 1465 

I would you were! " The rest you know, I think — 
How I found Caponsacchi and escaped. 

And this man, men call sinner? Jesus Christ! 

Of whom men said, with mouths Thyself mad'st once, 

" He hath a devil " — say he was Thy saint. 1470 

My Caponsacchi! Shield and show — unshroud 

In Thine own time the glory of the soul 

If aught obscure, — if ink-spot, from vile pens 

Scribbling a charge against him — (I was glad 

Then, for the first time, that I could not write) — 1475 

Flirted his way, have flecked the blaze! 

For me, 
"T is otherwise : let men take, sift my thoughts 

— Thoughts I throw like the flax for sun to bleach! 
I did pray, do pray, in the prayer shall die, 

" Oh, to have Caponsacchi for my guide! " 1480 

Ever the face upturned to mine, the hand 

Holding my hand across the world, — a sense 

That reads, as only such can read, the mark 

God sets on woman, signifying so 

She should — shall peradventure — be divine ; 1485 

Yet 'ware, the while, how weakness mars the print 

And makes confusion, leaves the thing men see. 

— Not this man sees, — who from his soul, re-writes 
The obliterated charter, — love and strength 

Mending what 's marred. " So kneels a votarist, 1490 

Weeds some poor waste traditionary plot 
Where shrine once was, where temple yet may be. 
Purging the place but worshipping the while. 
By faith and not by sight, sight clearest so, — 
Such way the saints work." — says Don Celestine. 1495 

But I, not privileged to see a saint 
Of old when such walked earth with crown and palm, 
If I call ''saint" what saints call something else — 
The saints must bear with me. impute the fault 
. To a soul i' the bud. so starved by ignorance, 1500 

Stinted of warmth, it will not blow this year 
Nor recognize the orb which Spring-flowers know 
But if meanwhile some insect with a heart 



rOMl'ILIA. 273 

Worth rioods of lazy music, spendthrift joy — 

Some fire-fiy renounced Spring for my dwarfed cup, 1505 

Crept close to me, brought lustre for tlie dark. 

Comfort against the cold, — what though excess 

Of comfort should miscall the creature — sun? 

What did the sun to hinder while harsh hands 

Petal by petal, crude and colorless, 15 10 

Tore me? This one heart gave me all the Spring! 

Is all told? There \s the journe\- : and where 's time 

To tell you how that heart burst out in shine? 

Yet certain points do press on me too hard. 

Each place must liave a name, though I forget: 1515 

How strange it was — there where the plain begins 

And the small river mitigates its flow — 

When eve was fading fast, and my soul sank, 

And he divined what surge of Ijitterness, 

In overtaking me. would float me back 1520 

Whence I was carried by the striding day — 

So, — '* This gray place was famous once," said he — 

And he began that legend of the place 

As if in answer to the unspoken fear. 

And told me all about a brave man dead, 1525 

Which lifted me and let my soul go on! 

How did he know too, — at that town's approach 

By the rock-side, — that in coming near the signs 

Of life, the house-roofs and the church and tower, 

I saw the old boundary and wall o' the world 1530 

Rise plain as ever round me, hard and cold. 

As if the broken circlet joined again, 

Tightened itself about me with no break, — 

As if the town would turn Arezzo's self. — 

The husband there, — the friends my enemies, 1535 

All ranged against me, not an avenue 

To try, but would be blocked and drive me back 

On him, — this other, . . . oh the heart in that! 

Did not he find, bring, put into my arms 

A new-born babe ? — and I saw faces beam 1 540 

Of the young mother proud to teach me joy. 

And gossips round expecting mv surprise 

At the sudden hole through earth that lets in heaven. 

I could believe himself by his strong will 

Had woven around me what I thought the world 1545 

We went along in, every circumstance. 

Towns, flowers and faces, all things helped so well! 

For, througli the journey, was it natural 

Such comfort should arise from first to last? 

As I look back, all is one milky way ; 1550 

Still bettered more, the more remembered, so 



274 THE RIXG AND THE BOOK. 

Do new stars bud while I but search for old, 

And fill all gaps i' the glory, and grow him — 

Him I now see makg the shine everywhere. 

Even at the last when the bewildered flesh, 1555 

The cloud of weariness about my soul 

Clogging too heavily, sucked down all sense, — 

Still its last voice was, " He will watch and care ; 

Let the strength go, I am content : he stays! "' 

I doubt not he did stay and care for all — 1560 

From that sick minute when the head swam round. 

And the eyes looked their last and died on him. 

As in his arms he caught me, and, you say, 

Carried me in, that tragical red eve. 

And laid me where I next returned to life 1565 

In the other red of morning, two red plates 

That crushed together, crushed the time between, 

And are since then a solid fire to me, — 

When in, my dreadful husband and the world 

Broke, — and I saw him, master, by helPs right, 1570 

And saw my angel helplessly held back 

By guards that helped the malice — the lamb prone. 

The serpent towering and triumphant — then 

Came all the strength back in a sudden swell, 

I did for once see right, do right, give tongue 1575 

The adequate protest : for a worm must turn 

If it would have its wrong observed by God. 

I did spring up, attempt to thrust aside 

That ice-block 'twixt the sun and me. lay low 

The neutralizer of all good and truth. 1580 

If I sinned so, — never obey voice more 

O' the Just and Terrible, who bids us — " Bear!" 

Not- — " Stand by, bear to see my angels bear! " 

I am clear it was on impulse to serve God 

Not save myself, — no — nor my child unborn! 15^5 

Had I else waited patiently till now? — 

Who saw my old kind parents, silly-sooth 

And too much trustful, for their worst of faults. 

Cheated, brow-beaten, stripped and starved, cast out 

Into the kennel : I remonstrated, 159° 

Then sank to silence, for, — their woes at end. 

Themselves gone, — only I was left to plague. 

If only I was threatened and belied. 

What matter? I could bear it and did bear; 

It was a comfort, still one lot for all : 1595 

They were not persecuted for my sake 

And I, estranged, the single happy one. 

But when at last, all by myself I stood 

Obeying the clear voice which bade me rise, 



rOMP/L/A. 275 

Not for my own sake but my babe unborn, 1600 

And take the angel's hand was sent to help — 

And found the old adversary athwart the path — 

Not my hand simply struck from the angel's, but 

The very angel's self made foul i' the face 

By the fiend who struck there, — that I would not bear, 1605 

That only I resisted! So, my first 

And last resistance was invincible. 

Prayers move God ; threats, and nothing else, move men! 

I must have prayed a man as he were God 

When I implored the Governor to right 1610 

My parents' wrongs : the answer was a smile. 

The Archbishop, — did I clasp his feet enough. 

Hide my face hotly on them, while I told 

More than I dared make my own mother know? 

The profit was — compassion and a jest. 161 5 

This time, the foolish prayers were done with, right 

Used might, and solemnized the sport at once. 

All was against the combat : vantage, mine? 

The runaway avowed, the accomplice-wife. 

In company with the plan-contriving priest? 1620 

Yet, shame thus rank and patent, I struck, bare. 

At foe from head to foot in magic mail. 

And oif it withered, cobweb-armory 

.Against the lightning! 'T was truth singed the lies 

And saved me, not the vain sword nor weak speech! 1625 

You see, 1 will not have the service fail! 

I say, the angel saved me : 1 am safe ! 

Others may want and wish, I wish nor want 

One point o' the circle plainer, where I stand 

Traced round about with white to front the world. 1630 

What of the calumny I came across. 

What o' the way to the end? — the end crowns all. 

The judges judged aright i" the main, gave me 

The uttermost of my heart's desire, a truce 

From torture and Arezzo, balm for hurt, 1635 

With the quiet nuns. — God recompense the good! 

Who said and sang away the ugly past. 

And, when my final fortune was revealed, 

What .safety while, amid my parent.s' arms. 

My babe was given me! Yes, he saved my babe : 1640 

It would not have peeped forth, the bird-like thing, 

Through that Arezzo noise and trouble : back 

Had it returned nor ever let me see! 

But the sweet peace cured all, and let me live 

And give my bird the life among the leaves 1645 

God meant him! — Weeks and months of quietude, 



THE RIXG AXD THE BOOK. 

I could lie in such peace and learn so much — 

Begin the task, I see how needful now, 

Of understanding somewhat of my past, — 

Know life a little, I should leave so soon. 1650 

Therefore, because this man restored my soul, 

All has been right ; I have gained my gain, enjoyed 

As well as suffered, — nay, got foretaste too 

Of bettei' life beginning where this ends — 

All through the breathing-while allowed me thus, 1655 

Which let good premonitions reach my soul 

Unthwarted, and benignant influence llovv 

And interpenetrate and change my heart. 

Uncrossed by what was wicked, — nay, unkind. 

For. as the weakness of my time drew nigh, 1660 

Nobody did me one disservice more, 

Spoke coldly or looked strangely, broke the love 

I lay in the arms of, till my boy was born. 

Born all in love, with nought to spoil the bliss 

A whole long fortnight : in a life like mine 1665 

A fortnight filled with bliss is long and much. 

All women are not mothers of a boy. 

Though they live twice the length of my whole life, 

And, as they fancy, happily all the same. 

There I lay, then, all my great fortnight long, 1670 

As if it would continue, broaden out 

Happily more and more, and lead to heaven : 

Christmas before me, — was not that a chance? 

1 never realized God's birth before — 

How He grew likest God in being born. , 1675 

This time I felt like Mary, had my babe 

Lying a little on my breast like hers. 

So all went on till, just four days ago — 

The night and the tap. 

Oh it shall be success 
To the whole of our poor family! My friends 1680 

. . . Nay, father and mother, — give me back my word! 
They have been rudely stripped of life, disgraced 
Like children who must needs go clothed too fine. 
Carry the garb of Carnival in Lent. 

If they too much affected frippery, 1685 

They have been punished and submit themselves, 
Say no word : all is over, they see God 
Who will not be extreme to mark their fault 
Or He had granted respite : they are safe. 

For that most woeful man my husband once, 1690 

Who, needing respite, still draws vital breath. 



rOMJ'/L/A. 277 

I — pardon him ? So far as lies in me, 

I give him for his good the life he takes. 

Praying the world will therefore acquiesce. 

Let him make (iod amends, — none, none to me 1695 

Who thank him ratlier tiiat, whereas strange fate 

.Mockingly styled him husband and me wife. 

Himself this way at least pronounced divorce, 

Blotted the marriage-bond : this blood of mine 

Flies forth e.xultingly at any door. 1700 

Washes the parchment white, and thanks the blow. 

We shall not meet in this world nor the next, 

But where will God be absent? In His face 

Is light, but in His- shadow healing too: 

Let Guido touch the shadow and be healed! 1705 

And as my presence was importunate, — 

.My earthly good, temptation and a snare, — 

Nothing about me but drew somehow down 

His hate upon me, — somewhat so excused 

Therefore, since hate was thus the truth of him, — • 1710 

May my evanishment for evermore 

Help further to relieve the heart that cast 

Such object of its natural loathing forth ! 

So he was made; he nowise made himself: 

I could not love him, but his mother did. 171 5 

His soul has never lain beside my soul : 

But for the unresisting body, — thanks! 

He burned that garment spotted by the flesh. 

Whatever he touched is rightly ruined : plague 

It caught, and disinfection it had craved 1720 

Still but for Guido ; I am saved through him 

So as by fire ; to him — thanks and farewell! 

Even for my babe, my boy, there's safety thence — 

From the sudden death of me, I mean : we poor 

Weak souls, how we endeavor to be strong! 1725 

I was already using up my life, — 

This portion, now, should do him such a good, 

This other go to keep off such an ill! 

The great life ; see, a breath and it is gone! 

So is detached, so left all by itself 1730 

The little life, the fact which means so much. 

Shall not God stoop the kindlier to His work, 

His marvel of creation, foot would crush. 

Now that the hand He trusted to receive 

And hold it, lets the treasure fall perforce? 1735 

The better; He shall have in orphanage 

His own way all the clearlier: if my babe 

Outlived the hour — and he has lived two weeks — 



278 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

It is through God who knows I am not by. 

Who is it makes the soft gold hair turn black, 1740 

And sets the tongue, might lie so long at rest. 

Trying to talk? Let us leave God alone! 

Why should I doubt He will explain in time 

What I feel now, but fail to find the words ?- 

My babe nor was, nor is, nor yet shall be 1745 

( Count Guido Franceschini's child at all — 
\ Only his mother's, born of love not hate! 

"* So shall I have my rights in after-time. 
I It seems absurd, impossible to-day ; 
So seems so much else, not explained but known! 1750 

Ah! Friends, I thank and bless you every one! 
No more now : I withdraw from earth and man 
To my own soul, compose myself for God. 

Well, and there is more! Yes. my end of breath 

Shall bear away my soul in being true! 1755 

He is still here, not outside with the world. 

Here, here, I have him in his rightful place! 

'T is now, when I am most upon the move, 

I feel for what I verily find — again 

The face, again the eyes, again, through all, 1760 

The heart and its immeasurable love 

Of my one friend, my only, all my own. 

Who put his breast between the spears and me. 

Ever with Caponsacchi ! Otherwise 

Here alone would be failure, loss to me — 1765 

How much more loss to him, with life debarred 

From giving life, love locked from love's display, 

The day-star stopped its task that makes night morn! 
\ O lover of my life, O soldier-saint, 
\ No work begun shall ever pause for death! 1770 

Love will be helpful to me more and more 

r the coming course, the new path I must tread — 

My weak hand in thy strong hand, strong for that! 

Tell him that if 1 seem without him now. 

That's the world's insight! Oh, he understands! 1775 

He is at Civita — do I once doubt 

The world again is holding us apart? 

He had been here, displayed in my behalf 

The broad brow that reverberates the truth, 

.And flashed the word God gave him, back to man! 1780 

I know where the free soul is flown! My fate 

Will have been hard for even him to bear : 

Let it confirm him in the trust of God, 

Showing how holily he dared the deed! 



POM Pr LI A. 279 

And, for the rest, — say, from the deed, no touch 1785 

Of harm came, but all good, all happiness, 

Not one faint fleck of failure! Why explain? 

What I sec, oh, lie sees and how much more! 

Tell him, — I know not wherefore the true word 

Should fade and fall unuttered at tlie last — 1790 

It was the name of him I sprang to meet 

When came the knock, the summons and the end. 

"My great heart, my strong hand are back again!" 

I would have sprung to these, beckoning across 

Murder and hell gigantic and distinct ^795 

O' the threshold, posted to exclude me heaven : 

He is ordained to call and I to come! 

Do not the dead wear flowers when dressed for God? 

Say, — I am all in flowers from head to foot! 

Say, — Not one flower of all he said and did, 1800 

Might seem to flit unnoticed, fade unknown. 

But drop])ed a seed, has grown a balsam-tree 

Whereof the blossoming perfumes the place 

At this supreme of moments! He is a priest ; 

He cannot marry therefore, which is right : 1805 

1 think he would not marry if he could. 

MaiTiage on earth seems such a counterfeit, 

Mere imitation of the inimitable : 

In heaven we have the real and true and sure. 

'T is there they neither marry nor are given 1 8 10 

In marriage but are as the angels : right, 

Oh how right that is, how like Jesus Chr[st 

To say that! Marriage-making for the earth, 

With gold so much, — birth, power, repute so much, 

Or beauty, youth so much, in lack of these! 181 5 

Be as the angels rather, who, apart. 

Know themselves into one, are found at length 

Married, but marry never, no, nor give 

In marriage ; they are man and wife at once 

When the true time is : here we have to wait 1820 

Not so long neither! Could we by a wish 

Have what we will and get the future now, 

Would we wish aught done undone in the past? 

So, let him wait God\s instant men call years ; 

Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul, 1825 

Do out the duty! Through such souls alone 

God stooping shows sufficient of His light 

For us i' the dark to rise by. And I rise. 



28o THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

VIII. 
DOMINUS HYACINTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS, 
'PAUPERUM PROCURATOR.! 

[Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis regards the great P'ranceschini case 
simply as a fortunate chance for him to show off his superior skill as a lawyer, and 
thereby discomfit his rival, the Fisc. While his head is occupied in preparing 
what he considers a learned defence in support of the right of wounded honor to 
vindicate itself, based upon precedents drawn from animal life, and from Pagan and 
Christian custom, his heart is entirely occupied with his own domestic felicities.] 

Ah, my Giacinto, he 's no ruddy rogue, 

Is not Cinone?^ What, to-day we're eight? 

Seven and one 's eight, I hope, old curly-pate! 

— Branches me out his verb-tree on the slate, 

Amo -as -avi -at tan -are -ans. 5 

Up to -atienis, person, tense, and mood, 

Qnies, me aim suhjiincthui^ (I could cry) 

And chews Corderius* with his morning crust! 

Look eight years onward, and he 's perched, he 's perched 

Dapper and deft on stool beside this chair, 10 

Cinozzo, Cinoncello, who but he? 

— Trying his milk-teeth on some crusty case 
Like this, papa shall triturate ^ full soon 

To smooth Papinianian '° pulp! 

It trots 
Already through my head, though noon be now, 15 

Does supper-time and what belongs to eve. 
Dispose, O Don, o' the day, first work then play! 

— The proverb bids. And '' then " means, won't we hold 
Our little yearly lovesome frolic feast, 

Cinuolo's birth-night, Cinicello's own, 20 

That makes grufif January grin perforce! 

For too contagious grows the mirth, the warmth 

^ Paupefuvi Procurator : the official de- ^ Corderius : Mathiirin Cordier, author of 

fender of criminals, as the "Fisc" is the the most popular Latin school-book of the 

official prosecutor. sixteenth century, the " CoUoquia Scholas- 

- Cinone : a pet diminutive of Giacinto, as tica." 
are Cinozzo, Cinoncello, Cinino, and various ^ Triturate : grind down, 

other forms occurring in this Book. ''• Papinianian : from Papinius, a Roman 

* Qiiies me emu subjunctivo : a truce with jurist of the beginning of the third century, 
the subjunctive. 



DOM/iVCS HYACIXTHrS DE ARCHANGELIS. 281 

Escaping from so many hearts at once — 

When the good wife. l)uxom and bonny yet, 

Jokes the hale grandsire. — such are just the sort 25 

To go ofl" suddenly, — he who hides the key 

O' the box beneath his pillow every night, — 

Which box may hold a parchment (some one thinks) 

Will show a scribbled something like a name 

" Cinino, Ciniccino," near the end, 30 

To whom I give and I becjueath my lands. 

Estates, tenements, hereditaments. 

When I decease as honest grandsire ought." 

Wherefore — yet this one time again perhaps — 

Shan't my Orvieto ^ fuddle his old nose! 35 

Then, uncles, one or the other, well i' the world. 

May — drop in, merely? — trudge through rain and wind, 

Rather! The smell-feasts rouse them at the hint 

There's cookery in a certain dwelling-place! 

Gossips, too, each with keepsake in his poke, 40 

Will pick the way, thrid lane by lantern-light. 

And so find door, put galligaskin ■' off 

At entry of a decent domicile 

Cornered in snug Condotti,^ — all for love. 

All to crush cup with Cinucciatolo! 

Well, 45 

Let others climb the heights o' the court, the camp! 
How vain are chambering and wantonness. 
Revel and rout and pleasures that make mad ! 
Commend me to home-joy, the family board. 
Altar and hearth ! These, with a brisk career, 50 

A source of honest profit and good fame. 
Just so much work as keeps the brain from rust, 
Just so much play as lets the heart expand. 
Honoring God and serving man, — I say. 
These are reality, and all else, — fluff, 55 

Nutshell and nought, — thank Flaccus** for the phrase! 
Suppose I had been Fisc, yet bachelor! 

Why, work with a will, then! Wherefore lazy now? 

Turn up the hour-glass, whence no sand-grain slips 

But should have done its duty to the saint 60 

O' the day, the son and heir that's eight years old! 

Let law come dimple Cinoncino"s cheek. 

And Latin dumple Cinarello's chin, 

' Orvieto: a rich wine. ' Condottz : a street which runs off the 

^ Galligaskin : large hose or trousers, evi- Corso. 
dently from the context worn as an outer pro- * Flaccits : Horace, "Satires," ii. 5, 35, 

tection. guassa nucc, a proverbial expression for 

something worthless. 



282 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

The while we spread him fine and toss him flat 

This pulp that makes the pancake, trim our mass 65 

Of matter into Argument the First, 

Prime Pleading in defence of our accused. 

Which, once a-waft on paper wing, shall soar, 

Shall signalize before applausive Rome 

What study, and mayhap some mother-wit. 70 

Can do toward making Master fop and Fisc 

Old bachelor Bottinius bite his thumb. 

Now, how good God is! How falls plumb to point 

This murder, gives me Guido to defend 

Now, of all days i' the year, just when the boy 75 

Verges on Virgil, reaches the right age 

For some such illustration from his sire, 

Stimulus to himself! One might wait years 

And never find the chance which now finds me! 

The fact is, there 's a blessing on the hearth. 80 

A special providence for fatherhood ! 

Here 's a man, and what 's more, a noble, kills 

— Not sneakinglv but almost with parade — 
Wife's father and wife's mother and wife's self 

That's mother's self of son and heir (like mine!) 85 

— And here stand I, the favored advocate. 
Who pluck this flower o' the field, no Solomon 
Was ever clothed in glorious gold to match, 
And set the same in Cinoncino's cap! 

I defend Guido and his comrades — I! 90 

Pray God, I keep me humlile : not to me — 
No}i nobis^ Do/mne. sed tibi laiisl 
How the fop chuckled when they made him Fisc! 
We'll beat you, my Bottinius, all for love, 
All for our tribute to Cinotto's day. 95 

Why, 'sbuddikins, old Innocent himself 
May rub his eyes at the bustle, — ask " What 's this 
Rolling from out the rostrum, as a gust 
^^___^'0' the Pro Milone '^ had been prisoned there, 
-' And rattled Rome awake ? " Awaken Rome, 100 

How can the Pope doze on in decency? 
He needs must wake up also, speak his word, 
Have his opinion like the rest of Rome, 
About this huge, this hurly-burly case : 

He wants who can excogitate the truth, 105 

Give the result in speech, plain black and white, 
To mumble in the mouth and make his own 

— A little changed, good man, a little changed! 

1 Non nobis, etc. : not unto us, O Lord, - Pro Milone : Cicero's great speech in 

but to thee the praise. defence of Milo on a charge of murder. 



DOMINUS HYACIXTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS. 283 

No matter, so his gratitude be moved, 

By when my Giacintino gets of age, 1 10 

Mindful of who tiuis iielped him at a pinch, 

Archangelus Procurator Paupenun — 

And proved Hortensius ^ Redivivusl 

Whew! 
To earn the Est-cst.- merit the minced herb 
That molHfies the liver's leathery slice, 115 

With here a goose-foot, there a cock's-comb stuck. 
Cemented in an element of cheese! 
I doubt if dainties do the grandsire good : 
Last June he had a sort of strangling . . . bah! 
He 's his own master, and his will is made. 120 

So, liver fizz, law flit and Latin fly 
As we rub hands o'er dish by way of grace! 
May I lose cause if I vent one word more 
Except, — with fresh-cut quill we ink the white, — 
P-r-o-pro Guidone et Sociis.^ There! 125 

Count Guido married — or, in Latin due, 

W^hat? Diixit in Jixoreni?^ — commonplace! 

Tcedas jiigales iniit, sitbiif, — ha! 

He underwent the matrimonial torch? 

Contiubio stabili sibi junxit^ — hum! 130 

In stable bond of marriage bound his own? 

That 's clear of any modern taint : and yet . . . 

Virgil is little help to who writes prose. 

He shall attack me Terence with the dawn. 

Shall Cinuccino! Mum, mind business. Sir! 135 

Thus circumstantially evolve we facts, 

It a se habet idea series facti : 

He wedded, — ah, with owls^ for augury! 

N'lipserat, hen sinistris avibus. 

One of the blood Arezzo boasts her best, 140 

Domintis Guido, nobili geiiere ortus, 

PompilicB . . . 

But the version afterward! 
Curb we this ardor! Notes alone, to-day, 

' Hortensius : the great Roman orator, •• Duxit in uxorem : as Browning gives 

contemporary with Cicero. a free version of most of the Latin used by 

2 Est-est : a wine so called because a noble- Archangelis in his defence, literal translations 

man once sent his servant in advance to write are omitted from the notes. Only where no 

"Est," it is! on any inn where the wine was hint of the meaning can be gained from the 

particularly good. At one inn it was so text, will a translation be given, 

superlatively good that he wrote Est-est. ■' O^vls for augriry : the owl was con- 

^ Pro Cuidone et Sociis : for Guido and sidered a bird of evil omen, 
his associates. 



284 ^-^^ ^^^^<^ ^^^ ^^^ BOOK. 

The speech to-morrow and the Latin last : 

Such was the rule in Farinacci's^ time. 145 

Indeed I hitched it into verse and good. 

Unluckily, law quite absorbs a man, 

Or else I think 1 too had poetized. 

'' Law is the pork substratum of the fry, 

Goose-foot and cock's-comb are Latinity," — 150 

And in this case, if circumstance assist, 

We'll garnish law with idiom, never fear! 

Out-of-the-way events extend our scope : 

For instance, when Bottini brings his charge, 

"That letter which you say Pompilia wrote, — 155 

To criminate her parents and herself 

And disengage her husband from the coil, — 

That, Guido Franceschini wrote, say we : 

Because Pompilia could nor read nor write. 

Therefore he pencilled her such letter first, 160 

Then made her trace in ink the same again." 

— Ha, my Bottini, have I thee on hip? 

How will he turn this and break Tully's pate? 

'■^ Existimandiim'''' (don't I hear the dog!) 

" Qiiod Guido desigiia7<erit elementa 165 

DidcB epistolcE, quce fiterint 

(Siiperhidiicto ab ea calavio) 

Notata atramento " — there 's a style ! — 

" Quia ipsa sc7'ibere nesciebat.^'' Boh ! 

Now, my turn! Either, /«i-///j^.' - (I outburst) 170 

Stupidly put! Inane is the response, 

Inanis est 7'esponsio, or the like — 

To wit, that each of all those characters. 

Quod singula elementa epistolce, 

Had first of all been traced for her by him, 175 

Fueratit per euin prius designata. 

And then, the ink applied a-top of that, 

Et delude, stiperindncto calatno, 

The piece, she says, became her handiwork. 

Per eanu efforjnata ut Ipsa asserlt. 180 

Inane were such response I (a second time : ) 

Her husband outlined her the whole, forsooth ? 

Vlr ejns llneabat eplstolani .' 

What, she confesses that she wrote the thing, 

Fatetiir earn scrlpslsse, (scorn that scathes!) 185 

That she might pay obedience to her lord? 

Ut viro obiemperaret, apices 

(Here repeat charge with proper varied phrase) 

Eo deslgnante, ipsaque calamion 

1 Farinacci : see note, VIII. 322. - Insuhe : absurd. 



DOM/Xrs I/y.lCIXTHUS I)E ARCHANGELIS. 285 

Super mducente ' By such argument, igo 

Jta panter, she seeks to show tlie same, 

(Ay, by Saint Joseph and what saints you please) 

Epistolain ostoidit, niediiis fidnts, 

No voluntary deed but fruit of force! 

Non volnntarie sed coacte script am ! loc 

That 's the way to write Latin, friend my Fisc! 

Bottini is a beast, one barbarous : 

Look out for him when he attempts to say 

'• Armed with a pistol, Guido followed her! " 

Will not I be beforehand with my ""isc, 200 

Cut away phrase by phrase from underfoot! 

Giiido FoDipillain — Guido thus his wife 

Following with igneous engine, shall I have? 

Arrnis inunitus tgiieis perscqiiens — 

Arma sulphurea gestans, sulphury arms, 205 

Or, might one style a pistol — popping-piece? 

Ar mat Its breviori sclopido ' 

We '11 let him have been armed so. though it make 

Somewhat against us : I had thought to own— - * 

Provided with a simple travelling-sword, 210 

J\nse solummodo vlatorio 

/nstrtictus: but we'll grant the pistol here: 

Better we lost the cause than lacked the gird 

At the Fisc's Latin, lost the Judge's laugh! 

It 's Venturini that decides for style. 215 

Tommati rather goes upon the law. 

So, as to law, — 

Ah, but with law ne'er hope 
To level the fellow, — don't I know his trick! 
How he draws up. ducks under, twists aside ! 
He's a lean-gutted hectic rascal, fine 220 

As pale-haired red -eyed ferret which pretends 
'Tis ermine, pure soft snow from tail to snout. 
He eludes law by piteous looks aloft. 
Lets Latin glance otit" as he makes appeal 
To saint that's somewhere in the ceiling-top: 225 

Do you suppose I don't conceive the beast ? 
Plague of the ermine-vermin ! For it takes, 
It takes, and here 's the fellow Fisc. you see. 
And Judge, you'll not be long in seeing next! 
Confound the fop — he 's now at work like me : 230 

Enter his study, as I seem to do. 
Hear him read out his writing to himself! 
I know he writes as if he spoke : I hear 
The hoarse shrill throat, see shut eyes, neck shot-forth, 
— I see him strain on tiptoe, soar and pour 235 



286 • THE RIiXG AND THE BOOK. 

Eloquence out. nor stay nor stint at all — 

Perorate in the air, then quick to press 

With the product! What abuse of type and sheet! 

He '11 keep clear of my cast, my logic-throw, 

Let argument slide, and then deliver swift 240 

Some bowl from quite an unguessed point of stand — 

Having the luck o' the last word, the reply! 

A plaguy cast, a mortifying stroke : 

You face a fellow — cries " So, there you stand ? 

But I discourtfous jump clean o'er your head! 245 

You take ship-ca --entry for pilotage, 

Stop rat-holes, while a sea sweeps through the breach, — 

Hammer and fortify at puny points? 

Do, clamp and tenon, make all tight and safe! 

'Tis here and here and here you ship a sea. 250 

No good of your stopped leaks and littleness! " 

Yet what do I name "little and a leak"? 

TJie main defence o' the murder's used to death, 

By this time, dry bare bones, no scrap we pick : 

Safer I worked the new, the unforeseen. 255 

The nice by-stroke, the fine and improvised 

Point that can titillate the brain o' the Bench 

Torpid with over-teaching, long ago! 

As if Tommati (that has heard, reheard 

And heard again, first this side and then that — 260 

Guido and Pietro. Pietro and Guido. din 

And deafen, full three years, at each long ear) 

Don't want amusement for instruction now, 

Won't rather feel a flea run o'er his ribs, 

Than a daw settle heavily on his head! 265 

Oh I was young and had the trick of fence, 

Knew subtle pass and push with careless right — 

My left arm ever quiet behind back. 

With dagger ready : not both hands to blade! 

Puff and blow, put the strength out, Blunderbore! 270 

There 's my subordinate, young Spreti, now. 

Pedant and prig, — he '11 pant away at proof. 

That's his way! 

Now for mine — to rub some life 
Into one's choppy fingers this cold day! 

I trust Cinuzzo ties on tippet, guards 275 

The precious throat on which so much depends! 
Guido must be all goose-flesh in his hole, 
Despite the prison-straw : bad Carnival 
For captives! no sliced fry for him, poor Count! 



DOM/XrS HYACIXTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS. zSj 

Carnival-time, — another providence I 280 

The town a-svvarm with strangers to amuse. 
To edify, to give one"s name and fame 
In charge of, till tliey tind, some future day, 
Cintino come and claim it. his name too. 

Pledge of the pleasantness they owe papa — 285 

Who else was it cured Rome of her great qualms. 
When she must needs have her own judgment? — ay. 
When all her topping wits had set to work, 
Pronounced already on the case : mere boys, 
Twice Cineruggiolo's age with half his sense, 290 

As good as tell me. when I cross the court, 
" .Master Arcangeli!" (plucking at my gown) 
" We can predict, we comprehend your play. 
We'll help you save your client."' Tra-la-la! 
1 "ve travelled ground, from childhood to this hour, 295 

To have the town anticipate my track? 
The old fox takes the plain and velvet path. 
The young hound's predilection, — prints the dew, 
Don"t he, to suit their pulpy pads of paw? 

No I Burying nose deep down i' the briery bush, 300 

Thus 1 defend Count Guido. 
, Where are we weak? 

First, which is foremost in advantage too. 
Our murder. — we call, killing, — is a fact 
Confessed, defended, made a boast of: good! 
To think the Fisc claimed use of torture here, 305 

And got thereby avowal plump and plain 
That gives me just the chance I wanted, — scope 
Not for brute-force i)ut ingenuity. 
Explaining matters, not denying them! 

One may dispute, — as I am bound to do, 310 

And shall, — validity of process here: 
Inasmuch as a noble is exempt 
From torture which plebeians undergo 
In such a case : for law is lenient, lax. 

Remits the torture to a nobleman 315 

Unless suspicion be of twice the strength 
Attaches to a man born vulgarly : 
We don't card silk with comb that dresses wool. 
Moreover 't was severity undue 

In this case, even had the lord been lout. 320 

What utters, on this head, our oracle. 
Our Farinacci,^ my Gamaliel - erst, 

^ Farinncci : Prosper Farinacci (1544- seventeenth century. In 1599 he defended 

1613), author of a vohime of " Variae Quaes- Beatrice Cenci on the charge of murdering 

tiones " and other legal treatises, which were her father. 

regarded as of very high authority during the ^ Gamaliel : see Acts xxii. 3. 



288 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

In those immortal "Questions"? This I quote: 

•• Of all the tools at Law's disposal, sure 

That named Vigiliani>n is the best — 325 

That is, the worst — to whoso needs must bear : 

Lasting, as it may do, from some seven hours 

To ten ; (beyond ten, we Ve no precedent ; 

Certain have touched their ten, but, bah, they died!) 

It does so efficaciously convince, 330 

That, — speaking by much observation here, — 

Out of each hundred cases, by my count, 

Never I knew of patients beyond four 

Withstand its taste, or less than ninety-six 

End by succumbing : only martyrs four, 335 

Of obstinate silence, guilty or no, — against 

Ninety-six full confessors, innocent 

Or otherwise, — so shrewd a tool have we! 

No marvel either : in unwary hands. 

Death on the spot is no rare consequence : 340 

As indeed all but happened in this case 

To one of ourselves, our young tough peasant-friend 

The accomplice called Baldeschi : they were rough, 

Dosed him with torture as you drench a horse, 

Not modify your treatment to a man : 345 

So, two successive days he fainted dead. 

And only on the third essay, gave up. 

Confessed like flesh and blood. We could reclaim, — 

Blockhead Bottini giving cause enough ! 

But no, — we'll take it as spontaneously 350 

Confessed: we'll have the murder beyond doubt. 

Ah, fortunate (the poet's word^ reversed) 

Inasmuch as we know our happiness! 

Had the antagonist left dubiety,'^ 

Here were we proving murder a mere myth, 355 

And Guido innocent, ignorant, absent, — ay, 

Absent! He was — why, where should Christian be? 

Engaged in visiting his proper church, 

The duty of us all at Christmas-time, 

When Caponsacchi, the seducer, stung 36c 

To madness by his relegation, cast 

About him and contrived a remedy 

In murder : since opprobrium broke afresh. 

By birth o' the babe, on him the imputed sire. 

He it was quietly sought to smother up 363 

His shame and theirs together, — killed the three, 

And fled — (go seek him where you please to search) 

Just at the time when Guido, touched by grace, 

' The poet's word: see Virgil, " Geor- " Dubiety : doubtfulness. 
gics," ii. 458. 



DOM/yUS HYACL\THUS DE ARCHANGELIS. 289 

Devotions ended, hastened to the spot, 

Meaning to pardon his convicted wife, 370 

"Neither do I condemn thee, go in peace!" — 

And thus arrived i' the nick of time to catch 

The charge o' the killing, though great-heartedly 

He came but to forgive and bring to life. 

Doubt ye the force of Christmas on the soul? 375 

" Is thine eye evil because mine is good?" 

So. doubtless, had I needed argue here 

But for the full confession round and sound! 

Thus might you wrong some kingly alchemist, — 

Whose concern should not be with showing brass 380 

Transmuted into gold, but triumphing. 

Rather, about his gold changed out of brass, 

Not vulgarly to the mere sight and touch, 

But in the idea, the spiritual display, 

The apparition buoyed by winged words 385 

Hovering above its birth-place in the brain, — 

Thus would you wrong this excellent personage 

Forced, by the gross need, to gird apron round, 

Plant forge, light fire, ply bellows, — in a word, 

Demonstrate : when a faulty pipkin's crack 390 

May disconcert you his presumptive truth! 

Here were I hanging to the testimony 

Of one of these poor rustics — four, ye gods! 

Whom the first taste of friend the FiscaPs cord 

May drive into undoing my whole speech, 395 

Undoing, on his birthday, — what is worse, — 

My son and heir! 

I wonder, all the same. 
Not so much at those peasants' lack of heart ; 
But — Guido Franceschini, nobleman. 

Bear pain no better! Everybody knows 400 

It used once, when my father was a boy. 
To form a proper, nay, important point 
I' the education of our well-born youth. 
That they took torture handsomely at need, 
Without confessing in this clownish guise. 405 

Each noble had his rack for private use. 
And would, for the diversion of a guest. 
Bid it be set up in the yard of arms, 
And take thereon his hour of exercise, — 

Command the varletry stretch, strain their best, 410 

While friends looked on, admired my lord could smile 
'Mid tugging which had caused an ox to roar. 
Men are no longer men! 

— And advocates 



290 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

No longer Farinacci, let us add, 

If I one more time fly from point proposed! 415 

So, Viiidicatio, — here begins the speech! — 

Honoris causa ; thus we make our stand : 

Honor in us had injury, we prove. 

Or if we fail to prove such injury 

More than misprision of the fact. — what then? 420 

It is enough, authorities declare. 

If the result, the deed in question now, 

Be caused by confidence that injury 

Is veritable and no figment : since, 

What, though proved fancy afterward, seemed fact 425 

At the time, they argue shall excuse result. 

That which we do, persuaded of good cause 

For what we do, hold justifiable! — 

So casuists bid : man, bound to do his best. 

They would not have him leave that best undone 430 

And mean to do his worst, — though fuller light 

Show best was worst and worst would have been best. 

Act by the present light! — they ask of man. 

Ultra quod hie non agifitr, besides, 

It is not anyway our business here, 435 

De probatione adulterii, 

To prove what we thought crime was crime indeed 

Ad irrogandain pa'/iatn, and require 

Its punishment : such nowise do we seek : 

Sed ad effectin/i, but 't is our concern, 440 

ExcKsandi, here to simply find e.xcuse. 

Occisorem, for who did the killing-work, 

Et ad illius defeiisioneni, ( mark 

The diiTerence) and defend the man, just that! 

Quo casu levior probatio 445 

Exuberaret, to which end far lighter proof 

Suffices than the prior case would claim : 

It should be always harder to convict. 

In short, than to establish innocence. 

Therefore we shall demonstrate first of all 450 

That Honor is a gift of God to man 

Precious beyond compare : which natural sense 

Of human rectitude and purity, — 

Which white, man's soul is born with, — brooks no touch : 

Therefore, the sensitivest spot of all. 455 

Wounded by any wafture breathed from black, 

Is, — honor within honor, — like the eye 

Centred i' the ball, — the honor of our wife. 

Touch us o' the pupil of our honor, then. 

Not actually, — since so you slay outright, — 460 

But by a gesture simulating touch, 



DOM/XfS HVACINTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS. 291 

Presumable mere menace of such taint, — 
This were our warrant for eruptive ire 
'•To whose dominion I impose no end."^ 

(Virgil, now, should not be too difficult 465 

To Cinoncino, — say, the early books. 

Pen, truce to further gambols! Fosci?mir I "^^ 

Nor can revenge of injury done here 

To the honor proved the life and soul of us, 

Be too excessive, too extravagant : 470 

Such wrong seeks and must have complete revenge. 

Show we this, first, on the mere natural ground : 

Begin at the beginning and proceed 

Incontrovertibly. Theodoric, 

In an apt sentence Cassiodorus^ cites, 475 

Propounds for basis of all household law — 

I hardly recollect it, but it ends, 

*' Bird mates with bird, beast genders with his like, 

And brooks no interference." Bird and beast? 

The very insects ... if they wive or no, 480 

How dare I say when Aristotle •• doubts? 

But the presumption is they likewise wive. 

At least the nobler sorts ; for take the bee 

As instance, — copying King Solomon, — 

Why that displeasure of the bee to aught 485 

Which savors of incontinency. makes 

The unchaste a very horror to the hive? 

W^ience comes it bees obtain their epithet 

Oi casta apes, notably "the chaste"? 

Because, ingeniously saith Scaliger,^ 490 

(The young sage, — see his book of Table-talk) 

" Such is their hatred of immodest act. 

They fall upon the offender, sting to death." 

I mind a passage much confirmative 

r the Idyllist •"' (though I read him Latinized) 495 

■• Why " asks a shepherd, "is this bank unfit 

For celebration of our vernal loves?" 

^ To whose dominion, cic: " His ego nee * Aristotle : celebrated Greek writer on 

metas rerum nee tempera pono; Imperium philosophy, ethics, physics, etc., 384-323 B.C. 

sine fine dedi " (Virgil, "jEneid," i. 278,279). '' Scaliger : Joseph Justice, son of Julius 

2 Poscimnr : something is expected of us. Caesar Scaliger, both eminent men of learn- 

^ Cassiodorus : a Roman historian, states- ing. 

man, and monk who lived about 468. He was " Idyllist : Theocritus, a Greek poet who 

raised by Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, flourished in the third century B.C. He wrote 

to the highest offices. He was among the a number of idylls (little pictures), princi- 

first of literary monks. His books were much pally portraying country life. 
read in the Middle Ages. See note, 1. 228. 



292 THE RIXG AND THE BOOK. 

" Oh swain," returns the instructed shepherdess, 

" Bees swarm here, and would quick resent our warmth! " 

Only cold-blooded fish lack instinct here, 500 

Nor gain nor guard connubiality : 

But beasts, quadrupedal, mammiferous. 

Do credit to their beasthood : witness him 

That ^lian ^ cites, the noble elephant, 

(Or if not ^^lian. somebody as sage) 505 

Who seeing, much offence beneath his nose, 

His master's friend exceed in courtesy 

The due allowance to his master's wife. 

Taught them good manners and killed both at once, 

Making his master and the world admire. 510 

Indubitably, then, that master's self. 

Favored by circumstance, had done the same 

Or else stood clear rebuked by his own beast. 

Adeo, t(t qui honoretn speniit, thus. 

Who values his own honor not a straw, — 515 

Et non recitperare ao'at, nor 

Labors by might and main to salve its wound, 

Se lilciscendo, by revenging him. 

Nil differ at a belluis. is a brute, 

Quinimo irrationabilior 520 

Ipsistiiet belbus, nay, contrariwise. 

Much more irrational than brutes themselves, 

Should be considered, reputetur I How? 

If a poor animal feel honor smart. 

Taught by blind instinct nature plants in him, 525 

ShSll man, — confessed creation's master-stroke, 

Nay, intellectual glory, nay, a god. 

Nay, of the nature of my Judges here. — 

Shall man prove the insensible, the block. 

The blot o' the earth he crawls on to disgrace? 530 

(Come, that 's both solid and poetic!) Man 

Derogate, live for the low tastes alone. 

Mean creeping cares about the animal life? 

Absit- such homage to vile flesh and blood! 

(May Gigia have remembered, nothing stings 535 

Fried liver out of its monotony 
Of richness, like a root of fennel, chopped 
Fine with the parsley : parsley-sprigs, I said — 
Was there need I should say " and fennel too " ? 
But no, she cannot have been so obtuse! 540 

To our argument! The fennel will be chopped.) 

^ /Elia?i : in his " De Natura Animalium," xi. 15. - Absit : away! 



DOMIXUS HYACINTHUS DE ARCHAA'GEUS. 293 

From beast to man next mount we — ay, but, mind, 

Still mere man, not yet Christian, — that, in time! 

Not too fast, mark you! 'Tis on Heathen grounds 

We next defend our act : then, fairly urge — 545 

If this were done of old, in a green tree, 

Allowed in the Spring rawness of our kind, 

What may be licensed in the Autumn dry 

And ripe, the latter harvest-tide of man ? 

If, with his poor and primitive half-lights, 550 

The Pagan, whom our devils served for gods, 

Could stigmatize the breach of marriage-vow 

As that which blood, blood only might efface, — 

Absolve the husband, outraged, whose revenge 

Anticipated law. plied sword himself, — 555 

How with the Christian in full blaze of noon? 

Sliall not he rather double penalty. 

Multiply vengeance, than, degenerate, 

Let privilege be minished, droop, decay? 

Therefore set forth at large the ancient law! 560 

Superabundant the examples be 

To pick and choose from. The Athenian Code, 

Solon's,! the name is serviceable, — then, 

The Laws of the Twelve Tables," that fifteenth, — 

" Romulus " ^ likewise rolls out round and large ; 565 

The Julian*; the Cornelian ^ ; Gracchus' Law ® : 

So old a chime, the bells ring of themselves! 

Spreti can set that going if he please, 

I point you, for my part, the belfry plain, 

Intent to rise from dusk, dilKCuhun^ 570 

Into the Christian day shall broaden next. 

First, the fit compliment to His Holiness 

Happily reigning : then sustain the point — 

All that was long ago declared as law 

By the natural revelation, stands confirmed 575 

By Apostle and Evangelist and Saint, — 

1 The Athenian Code, Solon's: see note, Among these was one. Lex Julia de adul- 

I. 219. teris, which punished adultery. The refer- 

' The Laws of the Twelve Tables : this ence is probably to this. See I. 224. 
was the first Roman code of laws and applied " Cornelia)/ : laws passed under the Die- 
to both Plebs and Patricians. It was drawn tator Lucius Cornelius Sulla The law meant 
up 451 B.C. by ten Decemvirs elected for the here is propably Lejtr Cornelia de Sic ariis, 
purpose, and was engraved on twelve tables a law referring to murderers. See note, I. 223. 
of brass. '^Gracchus' Law: Caius .Sempronius 

3 Romulus : see note, I. 220. Gracchus, the Roman Tribune, who made 

* The Julian : laws passed during the many laws, 
reign of Augustus were called Leges Julia ' Diluculum : daybreak. 
judiciorum publicorunt et privatorutn. 



294 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

To-wit — that Honor is man's supreme good. 

Why should I baulk Saint Jerome i of his phrase? 

Ubi honor non est, where no honor is, 

Ibi contemptiis est; and where contempt, 580 

Ibt injuria freqiiens; and where that. 

The frequent injury, ibi et indignatio; 

And where the indignation, ibi quies 

Nulla: and where there is no quietude, 

Why, ibi, there, the mind is often cast 583 

Down from the heights where it proposed to dwell, 

Mens a proposito scEpe dejicitur. 

And naturally the mind is so cast down. 

Since harder 't is, quntn difficilins sit, 

Iram cohibere, to coerce one's wrath. 590 

Qiiam miracula facere, than work miracles, — 

So Gregory- smiles in his First Dialogue. 

Whence we infer, the ingenuous soul, the man 

Who makes esteem of honor and repute. 

Whenever honor and repute are touched, 595 

Arrives at term of fury and despair. 

Loses all guidance from the reason-check : 

As in delirium or a frenzy-fit. 

Nor fury nor despair he satiates, — no, 

Not even if he attain the impossible, 600 

Overturn the hinges of the universe 

To annihilate — not whoso caused the smart 

Solely, the author simply of his pain. 

But the place, the memory, vitnperii, 

O' the shame and scorn : qida, — says Solomon, 605 

(The Holy Spirit speaking by his mouth 

In Proverbs, the sixth chapter near the end) 

— Because, the zeal and fury of a man, 

Zelus et furor viri, will not spare, 

Non parcel, in the day of his revenge, 610 

hi die vindictce, nor will acquiesce. 

Nee acquiescet, through a person's prayers, 

Cujusdam precibus, — nee suscipiet, 

Nor yet take, pro redemptione, for 

Redemption, dona plurium, gifts of friends, 615 

Mere money-payment to compound for ache. 

Who recognizes not my client's case? 

Whereto, as strangely consentaneous^ here. 

Adduce Saint Bernard^ in the Epistle writ 

1 Saint Jerotne : a Catholic writer of the logvies with Peter the Deacon on the Lives 
fifth century distinguished for his zeal against and Miracles of the Italian Saints." 

the Christians. Died 420. ' Consentaneous : consistent with. 

2 Gregory : Pope Gregory the Great (550- ♦ Saint Bernard : The celebrated founder 
640). Among other things he wrote " Dia- of the order of Bernardmes (1091-1153). His 



DOMfXUS HYACINTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS. 295 

To Robertulus, his nephew : " Too much grief, 620 

Dolor quippe ttiviius non deliberate 

Does not excogitate propriety, 

Xon vereciindatur, nor knows shame at all, 

iVon consiilit ratione/fi, nor consults 

Reason, non dignitatis inetuit 625 

Dainnum, nor dreads the loss of dignity ; 

Moduni et ordinent, order and the mode, 

Ignorat, it ignores " : why, trait for trait, 

Was ever portrait limned so like the life ? 

(By Cavalier Maratta,^ shall I say? 630 

I hear he's first in reputation now.) 

Yes, that of Samson in the Sacred Text 

That's not so much the portrait as the man! 

Samson in Gaza was the antetype 

Of Guido at Rome : observe the Nazarite! 635 

Blinded he was, — an easy thing to bear : 

Intrepidly he took imprisonment. 

Gyves, stripes and daily labor at the mill : 

But when he found himself, i' the public place, 

Destined to make the common people sport, 640 

Disdain burned up with such an impetus 

r the breast of him that, all the man one fire, 

Moriatur, roared he, let my soul's self die. 

Am ma niea, with the Philistines! 

So, pulled down pillar, roof, and death and all,^ 645 

Multosqiie pbires interfecit, ay, 

And many more he killed thus, vioriens. 

Dying, quam vivus, than in his whole life, 

Occiderat, he ever killed before. 

Are these things writ for no example, Sirs? 650 

One instance more, and let me see who doubts! 

Our Lord Himself, made all of mansuetude,-^ 

Sealing the sum of sufferance up, received 

Opprobrium, contumely and buffeting 

Without complaint : but when He found Himself 655 

Touched in His honor never so little for once. 

Then outbroke indignation pent before — 

" Honorem /nenm nemini dabo ! " " No, 

My honor I to nobody will give! " 

And certainly the example so hath wrought, 660 

That whosoever, at the proper worth, 

Apprises worldly honor and repute, 

Esteems it nobler to die honored man 

works were published in Paris by Gaume - So, pulled down pillar, eic: see Judges 

(1835-1840). xvi. 29. 

• Maratta : see note, III. 59. > Mansuetude : gentleness. 



296 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Beneath Mannaia, than Hve centuries 

Disgraced in the eye o' the world. We find Saint Paul 665 

No recreant to this faith dehvered once : 

" Far worthier were it that I died," cries he, 

Expedit })iiJii tnagis >?iori, " than 

That any one should make my glory void," 

Qitam id gloria/n nieani guis evacuet ! 670 

See, ad Corinthietises : whereupon 

Saint Ambrose makes a comment with much fruit, 

Doubtless my Judges long since laid to heart, 

So I desist from bringing forward here. 

(1 can't quite recollect it.) 

Have I proved 675 

Satis superqtte, both enough and to spare, 
That Revelation old and new admits 
The natural man may effervesce in ire, 
O'erflood earth, o'erfroth heaven with foamy rage, 
At the first puncture to his self-respect? 680 

Then, Sirs, this Christian dogma, this law-bud 
Full-blown now, soon to bask the absolute flower 
Of Papal doctrine in our blaze of day, — 
Bethink you, shall we miss one promise-streak, 
One doubtful birth of dawn crepuscular,^ 685 

One dew-drop comfort to humanity, 
Now that the chalice teems with noonday wine? 
Yea, argue Molinists who bar revenge — 
Referring just to what makes out our case! 

Under old dispensation, argue they, 690 

The doom of the adulterous wife was death, 
Stoning by Moses' law.''^ " Nay, stone her not. 
Put her away!" next legislates our Lord;^ 
And last of all, " Nor yet divorce a wife! " 

Ordains the Church, " she typifies ourself, 695 

The Bride no fault shall cause to fall from Christ." 
Then, as no jot or tittle of the Law 
Has passed away — which who presumes to doubt? 
As not one word of Christ is rendered vain — 
Wliich, could it be though heaven and earth should pass? 700 
— Where do I find my proper punishment 
For my adulterous wife, I humbly ask 
Of my infallible Pope, — who now remits 
Even the divorce allowed by Christ in lieu 
Of lapidation Moses licensed me? 705 

* Crepuscular : glimmering. ^ Put her away , tic: see Matt. v. 32. 

^ Stotiing hy Moses' law : see Deut. xxii. 

24- 



DOM/XrS HYACrXTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS. 297 

The Gospel checks the Law which throws the stone, 

The Church tears the divorce-bill Gospel grants : 

Shall wives sin and enjoy impunity? 

What profits me the fulness of the days, 

The final dispensation, I demand, 710 

Unless Law, Gospel and the Church subjoin 

•■ But who hath barred thee primitive revenge, 

Which, like fire damped and dammed up, burns more fierce? 

Use thou thy natural privilege of man, 

Else wert thou found like those old ingrate Jews, 715 

Despite the manna-banquet on the board, 

A-longing after melons, cucumbers. 

And such like trash of Egypt left behind!" 

(There was one melon had improved our soup : 

But did not Cinoncino need the rind 720 

To make a boat with? So I seem to think.) 

Law, Gospel and the Church — from these we leap 

To the very last revealment, easy rule 

Befitting the well-born and thorough-bred 

O' the happy day we live in, not the dark 725 

O' the early rude and acorn-eating race.' 

" Behold," quoth James,'- "• we bridle in a horse 

And turn his body as we would thereby! " 

Yea, but we change the bit to suit the growth, 

And rasp our colt's jaw with a rugged spike 730 

We hasten to remit our managed steed 

Who wheels round at persuasion of a touch. 

Civilization bows to decency, 

The acknowledged use and wont: 'tis manners, — mild 

But yet imperative law, — which make the man. 735 

Thus do we pay the proper compliment 

To rank and that society of Rome, 

Hath so obliged us by its interest, 

Taken our client's part instinctively. 

As unaware defending its own cause. 740 

What dictum dotli Society lay down 

r the case of one who hath a faithless wife? 

Wherewithal should the husband cleanse his way? 

Be patient and forgive? Oli, language fails, — 

Shrinks from depicturing his turpitude! 745 

For if wronged husband raise not hue and cry, 

^ The early rudt and acorn-eating race : "^Behold, quoth y antes : see James 

early Greek myths declare that the first men iii. 3. 
were born from oaks, and that acorns were 
their principal food. 



298 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Quod si /ftariius de adulter to non 

Coiiquereretur, he 's presumed a — foh ! 

Presutnitiir leno : so, complain he must. 

But how complain? At your tribunal, lords ? 750 

Far weightier challenge suits your sense, I wot! 

You sit not to have gentlemen propose 

Questions gentility can itself discuss. 

Did not you prove that to our brother Paul? 

The Abate, qniiin jiidkialiter 755 

Prosequeretur, when he tried the law, 

Gjiidotiis caiisa>/i, in Count Guido's case, 

Accidit ipsi\ this befell himself, 

Quod risiiin vioverit et cacliiuiios^ that 

He moved to mirth and cachinnation, all 760 

Or nearly all,/k;'^ in omnibus 

Etiam sensatis et cordatis., men 

Strong-sensed, sound-hearted, nay, the very Court, 

Ipsismet in judicibtis, I might add, 

Non tanien dicani. In a cause like this, 765 

So multiplied were reasons pro and con, 

Delicate, intertwisted and obscure. 

That Law refused loan of a finger-tip 

To unravel, re-adjust the hopeless twine. 

Since, half-a-dozen steps outside Law's seat, 770 

There stood a foolish trifler with a tool 

A-dangle to no purpose by his side, 

Had clearly cut the embroilment in a trice. 

Assenitit enitn unaniiniter 

Doctores, for the Doctors all assert, 775 

That husbands, quod inariti, must be held 

Viles., cornnti repntaidnr, vile. 

Fronts branching forth a florid infamy. 

Si propriis manibiis, if with their own hands, 

Non suntnnt, they fail straight to take revenge, 780 

Vindictani, but e.xpect the deed be done 

By the Court — expectant illatn fieri 

PerjudiceSy qui sianniopere rident, which 

Gives an enormous guffaw for reply. 

Et cachinnantur. For he ran away, 785 

Deliquit enini, iust that he might 'scape 

The censure of both counsellors and crowd, 

Ut vulgi et doctoruni evitaret 

Censnrain, and lest so he superadd 

To loss of honor ignominy too, 790 

Et sic tie ista/n quoqite ignominiam 

Amisso honori siiperadderet. 

My lords, my lords, the inconsiderate step 

Was — we referred ourselves to Law at all! 



DOMIXUS HVACLVTHUS DE ARCIIANGELIS. 299 

Twit me not with •* Law else had punished you! '' 795 

Each punishment of the extra-legal step. 

To which the high-born preferably revert, 

Is ever for some oversight, some slip 

r the taking vengeance, not for vengeance' self. 

A good thing, done unhandsomely, turns ill ; 800 

And never yet lacked ill the law\s rebuke. 

For pregnant instance, let us contemplate 

The luck of Leonardus, — see at large 

Of Sicily's Decisions si.xty-first. 

This Leonard tinds his wife is false: what then? 805 

He makes her own son snare her, and entice 

Out of the town walls to a private walk 

Wherein he slays her with commodity. 

They find her body half-devoured by dogs : 

Leonard is tried, convicted, punished, sent 810 

To labor in the galleys seven years long : 

Why? For the murder? Nay, but for the mode! 

Mains modus occtdendi^ ruled the Court. 

An ugly mode of killing, nothing more! 

Another fructuous sample, — see " De Re 815 

Criminaliy^' in ALatthteus'^ divine piece. 

Another husband, in no better plight, 

.Simulates absence, thereby tempts his wife ; 

On whom he falls, out of sly ambuscade, 

Backed by a brother of his. and both of them 820 

Armed to the teeth with arms that law had blamed. 

Nimis dolose, overwililv. 

Fuisse operatutn, did thev work. 

Pronounced the law : had all been fairly done 

Law had not found him worthy, as she did, 825 

Of four years' exile. Why cite more? Enough 

Ls good as a feast — (unless a birthday-feast 

For one's Cinuccio) so, we finish here. 

My lords, we rather need defend ourselves 

Inasmuch as, for a twinkling of an eye, 830 

We hesitatingly appealed to law, — 

Than need deny that, on mature advice. 

We blushingly bethought us, bade revenge 

P>ack to its simple proper private way 

Of decent self-dealt gentlemanly death. 835 

Judges, here is the law, and here beside. 

The testimony! Look to it! 

Pause and breathe! 
So far is only too plain ; we must watch : 
Bottini will scarce hazard an attack 

' Matthceiis : there was a Dutch jurist of this name born at Utrecht 1635, died 1710. 



300 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Here : best anticipate the fellow's play, 840 

And guard the weaker places — warily ask, 

What if considerations of a sort, 

Reasons of a kind, arise from out the strange 

Peculiar unforeseen new circumstance 

Of this our (candor owns) abnormal act, 845 

To bar the right of us revenging so? 

" Impunity were otherwise your meed: 

Go slay your wife and welcome," — may be urged, — 

" But why the innocent old couple slay, 

Pietro, Violante? You may do enough, 850 

Not too much, not exceed the golden mean: 

Neither brute-beast nor Pagan, Gentile, Jew, 

Nor Christian, no nor votarist of the mode. 

Is justified to push revenge so far." 

No, indeed? Why, thou very sciolist! ^ 855 

The actual wrong. PompiIia_seejned.tjQ.dp, 

Was virtual wrong done by the parents here — 

Imposing her upon us as their child — 

Themselves allow : then, her fault was their fault, 

Her_punishment be theirs accordingly! 860 

But wait a little, sneak not off so soon! 

Was this cheat solely harm to Guido, pray ? 

The precious couple you call innocent, — 

Why, they were felons that Law failed to clutch, 

Qui lit fraiidarent, who that they might rob, 865 

Legitime vocatos, folk law called. 

Ad fidei commissum. true heirs to the Trust, 

PariufH supposnernnt, feigned this birth, 

Tz/nngj/wres reos factos esse, blind 

To the fact that, guilty, they incurred thereby, 870 

Ultiini siipplicii, hanging or what's worse. 

Do you blame us that we turn Law's instruments. 

Not mere self-seekers, — mind the public weal, 

Nor make the private good our sole concern? 

That having — shall I say — secured a thief, 875 

Not simply we recover from his pouch 

The stolen article our property. 

But also pounce upon our neighbor's purse 

We opportunely find reposing there. 

And do him justice while we right ourselves? 880 

He owes us, for our part, a drubbing say. 

But owes our neighbor just a dance i' the air 

Under the gallows : so, we throttle him. 

That neighbor 's Law, that couple are the Thief, 

1 Sciolist : a smatlerer. 



DOMINUS HYACINTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS. 301 

We are the over ready to help Law — 885 

Zeal of her house hath eaten us up : for which. 

Can it be, Law intends to eat up us, 

Cruduiii Priamiim, devour poor Priam raw, 

('T was Jupiter's own joke) with babes to boot, 

Priivnique pisinnos} in Homeric phrase? 890 

Shame! and so ends my period prettily. 

But even, — prove the pair not culpable, 
Free as unborn babe from connivance at, 
Participation in, their daughter's fault : 

Ours the mistake. Is that a rare event? 895 

Non semel, it is anything but rare, 
In contingentiafacti, that by chance, 
Impnnes evaserunt, go scot-free, 
Qui, such well-meaning people as ourselves, 
Jiisto dolore moti, who aggrieved 9°° 

With cause, apposuernnt /nanus, lay 
Rough hands, /;/ innocentes, on wrong heads. 
Cite we an illustrative case in point : 
Midier Sinirnea qucEiiani, good my lords, 
A gentlewoman lived in Smyrna once, 9°5 

Virum et filmm ex eo concept itin, who 
Both husband and her son begot by him 
Killed, interfecerat, ex quo, because, 
Vir /ilium suum perdiderat, her spouse 

Had been beforehand with her, killed her son, 910 

Matrimonii prijni, of a previous bed. 
Deinde accusata, then accused, 
Apud Dolabellam, before him th&t sat 
Proconsul, nee duabus ccedibus > 

Contaminatam liberare, nor 9' 5 

To liberate a woman doul)ly-dyed 
With murder, voluit, made he up his mind, 
Nee condemnare, nor to doom to death, 
Justo dolore itnpulsam, one impelled 

By just grief; sed remisit, but sent her up 9^° 

Ad Areopagum;- to the Hill of Mars, 
Sapientissimorumjudicum 
Ca'tum, to that assembly of the sage 
Paralleled only by my judges here ; 

Ubi. cognito de causa, where, the cause 9^5 

Well weighed, responsum est, they gave reply, 

^ Crudiim Priamum . . . Priamique translation reads: "Let Priam bleed . . . 

pisinnos : a line from a translation of Homer Bleed all his sons " (" Iliad," iv. 55). 

by Attius Labeo. The translation as a whole « Ad Areopagum : the Areopagus was a 

is lost, but this line (" Iliad," iv. 35) is pre- hill in Athens near the Acropolis, where the 

served by a scholiast on Persius. Pope's Supreme Court held its sessions. 



302 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Ut ipsa et accusator, that both sides 

O' the suit, rediroit., should come back again, 

Post centum aimos, after a hundred years, 

For judgment ; et sic, by which sage decree, 930 

Dtiplici parricidio rea, one 

Convicted of a double parricide, 

Qiiajnvis etiam innocentein, though in truth 

Out of the pair, one innocent at least 

She, occidisset, plainly had put to death, 935 

i/ndequaqiie, yet she altogether 'scaped, 

Ei'usit impunis. See the case at length 

In Valerius, fittingly styled Maxiiniis} 

That eighth book of his Memorable Facts. 

Nor Cyriacus- cites beside the mark : 940 

Similiter uxor qiice mandaverat. 

Just so. a lady who had taken care, 

Homicidium viri, that her lord be killed, 

Ex denegatiojie debiti. 

For denegation of a certain debt, 945 

Matrijfionialis, he was loth to pay, 

Fjiit pecujiiaria miilcta, was 

Amerced in a pecuniary mulct, 

Piiiiita, et ad pcefiam, and to pains, 

Temporalem, for a certain space of time, 950 

In tnonasterio, in a convent. 

(Ay, 
/;/ monastertol He mismanages 
In with the ablative, the accusative! 
I had hoped to have hitched the villain into verse 
For a gift, this very day, a complete list 955 

O" the prepositions each with proper case, 
Telling a story, long was in my head. 
" What prepositions take the accusative? 
Ad to or at — wJio saw tJie cat? — down to 
Oh, for, because of, keep her claws off! " Tush ! 960 

Law in a man takes the whole liberty : 
The muse is fettered : just as Ovid found !^) 

And now, sea widens and the coast is clear. 

What of the dubious act you bade excuse? 

Surely things broaden, brighten, till at length 965 

Remains — so far from act that needs defence — 

' Valerius Maximus : a Latin writer of zona, in Syria (died 1817). He wrote homi- 

the first century who made a collection of his- lies, canons, and epistles. 

torical anecdotes called "Books of Memo- ^ As Oin'd found : Ovid scribbled verse in 

rable Deeds and Utterances." the margin of his paper, as a youth, when he 

2 Cyriacus : monk of the convent of Bi- ought to have been framing legal orations. 



DOM/XrS HWIC/XTHUS DE ARCHANGELIS. 303 

Apology to make for act delayed 

One minute, let alone eight mortal months 

Of hesitation I '• Why procrastinate ? " 

(Out with it my Bottinius, ease thyself!) 970 

'• Right, promptly done, is twice riglit : right delayed 

Turns wrong. We grant you should have killed your wife, 

But killed o' the moment, at the meeting her 

In company with the priest : then did the tongue 

O' the Brazen Head ^ give license, 'Time is now ! ' 975 

Wait to make mind up? 'Time is past' it peals. 

Friend, you are competent to mastery 

O' the passions that confessedly explain 

An outbreak : you allow an interval, 

And then break out as if time's clock still clanged. 980 

You have forfeited your chance, and flat you fall 

Into the commonplace category 

Of men bound to go softly all their days. 

Obeying Law." 

Now, which way make response ? 
What was the answer Guido gave, himself.'' 985 

— That so to argue came of ignorance 
How honor bears a wound. " For, wound." said he. 
" My body, and the smart soon mends and ends : 
While, wound my soul where honor sits and rules. 
Longer the sufferance, stronger grows the pain, 990 

Being ex iticontincnti, fresh as first." 
But try another tack, urge common sense 
By way of contrast : say — Too true, my lords! 
W^e did demur, awhile did hesitate : 

Since husband sure should let a scruple speak 995 

Ere he slay wife, — for his own safety, lords! 
Carpers abound in this misjudging world : 
Moreover, there 's a nicety in law 
That seems to justify them should they carp. 
Suppose the source of injury a son, — 1000 

Father may slay such son yet run no risk : 
Why graced with such a privilege? Because 
A father so incensed with his own child. 
Or must have reason, or believe he has : 

Quia semper, seeing that in such event, 1005 

Frestimitur, the law is bound supi)ose, 
Qjiod capiat pater, that the sire must take, 
BoHum consilium pro Jilio, 

• Brazen Head: it was believed in the of the first half hour the head said, " Time is "; 

Middle Ages that a brazen head could be at the end of the second, " Time was " ; at the 

made which would speak. Roger Bacon is end of the third, " Time 's past." Then it fell 

said to have accomplished this feat. When down with a crash and was shivered in pieces, 
finished, a man was set to watch. At the end 



304 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

The best course as to what befits his boy, 

Through instinct, ex instinctn, of mere love, loio 

Amoris, and, paterni, fatherhood ; 

Quam confidentiam^ which confidence, 

Non Jiabet law declines to entertain, 

De viro, of the husband : where finds he 

An instinct that compels him love his wife? 1015 

Rather is he presumably her foe. 

So, let him ponder long in this bad world 

Ere do the simplest act of justice. 

But 
Again — and here we brush Bottini's breast — 
Object you, " See the danger of delay! 1020 

Suppose a man murdered my friend last month : 
Had I come up and killed him for his pains 
In rage, I had done right, allows the law : 
I meet him now and kill him in cold blood, 
I do wrong, equally allows the law : 1025 

Wherein do actions differ, yours and mine?" 
/;/ plenitudine intellectus es '? 
Hast thy wits, Fisc? To take such slayer's life. 
Returns it life to thy slain friend at all ? 

Had he stolen ring instead of stabbing friend, — 1030 

To-day, to-morrow or next century. 
Meeting the thief, thy ring upon his thumb. 
Thou justifiably hadst wrung it thence : 
So, couldst thou wrench thy friend's life back again. 
Though prisoned in the bosom of his foe. 1035 

Why, law would look complacent on thy wrath. 
Our case is, that the thing we lost, we found : 
The honor, we were robbed of eight months since. 
Being recoverable at any day 

By death of the delinquent. Go thy ways! 1040 

Ere thou hast learned law. will be much to do. 
As said the gaby while he shod the goose. 
Nay, if you urge me, interval was none! 
From the inn to the villa — blank or else a bar 
Of adverse and contrarious incident 1045 

Solid between us and our just revenge! 
What with the priest who flourishes his blade, 
The wife who like a fury flings at us. 
The crowd — and then the capture, the appeal 
To Rome, the journey there, the jaunting thence 1050 

To shelter at the House of Convertites, 
The visits to the Villa, and so forth, 
Where was one minute left us all this while 
To put in execution that revenge 




INTERIOR OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL. 



DOM/XL'S HYACLYTHUS DE ARCHAIVGELI^. 305 

We planned o' the instant? — as it were, plumped down 1055 

O' the spot, some eight months since, which round sound egg, 

Rome, more propitious than our nest, should hatch! 

Object not, " You reached Rome on Christmas-eve, 

And. despite liberty to act at once, 

Waited a whole and indecorous week!" 1060 

Hath so the Molinism, the canker, lords, 

Eaten to our bone? Is no religion left? 

No care for aught held holy by the Church ? 

What, would you have us skip and miss those Feasts 

O' the Natal Time, must we go prosecute 1065 

Secular business on a sacred clay? 

Should not the merest charity expect, 

Setting our poor concerns aside for once, 

We hurried to the song matutinal 

r the Sistine,^ and pressed forward for the Mass 1070 

The Cardinal that 's Camerlengo - chaunts, 

Then rushed on to the blessing of the Hat 

And Rapier, which tlie Pope sends to what prince 

Has done most detriment to the Infidel — 

And thereby whetted courage if 't were blunt? 1075 

Meantime, allow we kept the house a week, 

Suppose not we were idle in our mew! 

Picture us raging here and raving there — 

"'Money?' I need none. 'Friends?' The word is null. 

Restore the white was on that shield of mine 1080 

Borne at " . . . wherever might be shield to bear. 

" I see my grandsire, he who fought so well 

At" . . . here find out and put in time and place, 

Or el.se invent the fight his grandsire fought : 

"I see this! I see that!" 

(See nothing else, 1085 

Or I shall scarce see lamb's fry in an hour! 
What to the uncle, as I bid advance 
The smoking dish? " Fry suits a tender tooth! 
Behoves we care a little for our kin — 

You, Sir, — who care so much for cousinship 1090 

As come to your poor loving nephew's feast! " 1 

He has the reversion of a long lease yet — 
Land to bequeath! He loves lamb's fry, I know!) 

Here fall to be considered those same six 

Qualities; what Bottini needs must call 1095 

So many aggravations of our crime, 

^ Sistine : the chapel of the Papal palace in Pope, who ranks highest among the cardi- 

Rome, celebrated for its wonderful frescoes. nals, and presides during a vacancy in the 

' Camerlengo : the chamberlain of the Holy See. 
X 



3o6 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Parasite-growth upon mere murder's back. 

We summarily might dispose of such 

By some off-hand and jaunty fling, some skit — 

"So, since there 's proved no crime to aggravate, iioo 

A fico for your aggravations, Fisc! " 

No, — handle mischief rather, — play with spells 

Were meant to raise a spirit, and laugh the while 

We show that did he rise we stand his match ! 

Therefore, first aggravation : we made up — 1 105 

Over and above our simple murderous selves — 

A regular assemblage of armed men, 

Coadjinatio ar/natori/f/i, — ay. 

Unluckily it was the very judge 

That sits in judgment on our cause to-day i no 

Who passed the law as Governor of Rome : 

'* Four men armed," — though for lawful purpose, mark! 

Much more for an acknowledged crime, — "shall die." 

We five were armed to the teeth, meant murder too? 

Why, that 's the very point that saves us, Fisc! 11 15 

Let me instruct you. Crime nor done nor meant, — 

You punish still who arm and congregate : 

For wherefore use bad means to a good end ? 

Crime being meant not done, — you punish still 

The means to crime, whereon you haply pounce, 11 20 

Though accident have baulked them of effect. 

But crime not only compassed but complete. 

Meant and done too? Why, since you have the end, 

Be that your sole concern, nor mind those means 

No longer to the purpose! Murdered we? 1125 

( — Which, that our luck was in the present case, 

Qziod contigisse iti prcpseiiti casu, 

Is palpable, inanibiis palpatutii est — ) 

Make murder out against us. nothing else! 

Of many crimes committed with a view 1 130 

To one main crime. Law overlooks the less. 

Intent upon the large. Suppose a man 

Having in view commission of a theft. 

Climbs the town-wall : 't is for the theft he hangs, 

In case he stands convicted of such theft: 1135 

Law remits whipping, due to who clomb wall 

Through bravery or wantonness alone. 

Just to dislodge a daw's nest, plant a flag. 

So 1 interpret you the manly mind 

Of him about to judge both you and me, — 1140 

Our Governor, who, being no Fisc. my Fisc, 

Cannot have blundered on ineptitude! 

Next aggravation, — that the arms themselves 

Were specially of such forbidden sort 



DOM/XrS HYACINTH us DE ARCHAXGEL/S. 307 

Through shape or length or breadth, as, prompt, Law plucks 1 145 

From single hand of solitary man. 

Making him pay the carriage with his life : 

Delatio armono/i, arms against the rule, 

Contra for /nam constitutionis, of 

Pope Alexander's blessed memory. 1 1 50 

Such are the poignards with the double prong, 

Horn-like, when times make bold the antlered buck. 

Each prong of brittle glass — wherewith to stab 

And break off short and so let fragment stick 

Fast in the Hesh to baffle surgery : 1 155 

Such being the Genoese blade with hooked edge 

That did us service at the villa here. 

Sed parcat tnihi tain exintiKS vir. 

But, — let so rare a personage forgive, — 

Fisc. thy objection is a foppery I 11 60 

Thy charge runs that we killed three innocents : 

Killed, dost see? Then, if killed, what matter how? 

By stick or stone, by sword or dagger, tool 

Long or tool short, round or triangular — 

Poor slain folk find small comfort in the choice! 1 165 

Means to an end, means to an end, my Fisc! 

Nature cries out, "Take the first arms you find!" 

Furor /ninistrat anna : ^ where 's a stone ? 

Unde mi lapidetn, where darts for me? 

L/nde sagittas f - But subdue the bard 1 1 70 

And rationalize a little. Eight months since, 

Had we. or had we not, incurred your blame 

For letting 'scape unpunished this bad pair? 

I think I proved that in last paragraph! 

Why did we so? Because our courage failed. 1 175 

Wherefore? Through lack of arms to fight the foe : 

We had no arms or merely lawful ones. 

An unimportant sword and blunderbuss, 

Against a foe, pollent in potency. 

The a/nasins, and our vixen of a wife. 1180 

Well then, how culpably do we gird loin 

And once more undertake the high emprise. 

Unless we load ourselves this second time 

With handsome superfluity of arms, 

Since better is " too mucli " than " not enough," 1 185 

And "plus nan vitiat,'" too much does no harm, 

Except in mathematics, sages say. 

Gather instruction from the parable! 

At first we are advised — "A lad hath here 

^ Furor ministrat arma : Virgil, ' Unde m't lapidem . unde sagittas : 

' iEneid," i 150. Horace, "Satires" ii. 7, 116. 



3o8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Seven barley loaves and two small fishes : what 1190 

Is that among so many?" Aptly asked : 
But put that question twice and, quite as apt. 
The answer is " Fragments, twelve baskets full! " 

And, while we speak of superabundance, flmg 

We word by the way to fools who cast their Hout 1195 

On Guido — "Punishment were pardoned hun, 

But here the punishment exceeds offence : 

He might be just, but he was cruel too! " 

Why, grant there seems a kind of cruelty 

In downright stabbing people he could maim, 1200 

(If so you stigmatize the stern and strict) 

Still, Guido meant no cruelty — may plead 

Transgression of his mandate, over-zeal 

O' the part of his companions : all he craved 

Was, they should fray the faces of the folk, 1205 

Merely disfigure, nowise make them die. 

Solununodo fassus est, he owns no more, 

Dedisse matidatum, than that he desired, 

Ad sfrisiandiiffi, dica/n, that they hack 

And hew, i' the customary phrase, his wife, 12 10 

Uxorem tantum, and no harm beside. 

If his instructions then be misconceived. 

Nay, disobeyed, impute you blame to him? 

Cite me no Panicollus to the point. 

As adverse! Oh, I quite expect his case — 121 5 

How certain noble youths of Sicily 

Having good reason to mistrust their wives, 

Killed them and were absolved in consequence : 

While others who had gone beyond the need 

By mutilation of each paramour — 1220 

As Galba in the Horatian satire^ grieved 

— These were condemned to the galleys, cast for guilt 

Exceeding simple murder of a wife. 

But why? Because of ugliness, and not 

Cruelty, in the said revenge, I trow! 1225 

Ex causa abscissionis paj-tiian ; 

Qui noiipe id facteiiies reputantur 

Natur(E inimici, man revolts 

Against them as the natural enemy. 

Pray, grant to one who meant to slit the nose 1230 

And slash the cheek and slur the mouth, at most, 

A somewhat more humane award than these 

Obtained, these natural enemies of man! 

Object uvi fuiiditus cor r nit, flat you fall, 

My Fisc! I waste no kick on you, but pa'^s. 1235 

' The Horatian satire : " Satire" i. 2, 46. 



DO.U/XL'S HVAC/yTHL'S DE ARCHANGELIS. 309 

Third aggravation : that our act was done — 

Not in the public street, where safety lies, 

Not in the bye-place, caution may avoid. 

Wood, cavern, desert, spots contrived for crime, — 

But in the very house, home, nook and nest, 1240 

O' the victims, murdered in their dwelling-place, 

/;/ dono ac Jiabitatione propria. 

Where all presumably is peace and joy. 

Tlie spider, crime, pronounce we twice a pest 

When, creeping from congenial cottage, she 1245 

Taketh hold with her hands, to horrify 

His household more, i' the palace of the king. 

All three were housed and safe and confident. 

Moreover, the permission that our wife 

Should have at length domiDii pro car cere, 1250 

Her own abode in place of prison — why, 

We ourselves granted, by our other self 

And proxy Paolo : did we make such grant. 

Meaning a lure? — elude the vigilance 

O' the jailer, lead her to commodious death, 1255 

While we ostensibly relented .'' 

Ay, 
Just so did we, nor otherwise, my Fisc! 
Is vengeance lawful? We demand our right, 
But find it will be questioned or refused 

By jailer, turnkey, hangdog, — what know we? 1260 

Pray, how is it we should conduct ourselves? 
To gain our private right — break public peace. 
Do you bid us? — trouble order with our broils? 
Endanger . . . shall 1 shrink to own . . ourselves? — 
Who want no broken head nor bloody nose 1265 

(While busied slitting noses, breaking heads) 
From the first tipstaff that may interfere I 
Nam qjiicquid sit, for howsoever it be. 
An de co)isensti nostra, if with leave 

Or not, a ntonasterio, from the nuns, 1270 

Educta esset, she had been led forth, 
Potniniiis id dissi/nulare, we 
May well have granted leave in pure pretence, 
L't adiiuni habere, that thereby 

An entry we might compass, a free move 1275 

Potnissentiis, to her easy death. 
Ad earn occidendam. Privacy 
O" the hearth, and sanctitude of home, say you ? 
Shall we give man's abode more privilege 
Than God's? — for in the churches where He dwells 1280 

/;/ qjtibus assistit Regtim Hex, by means 
Of His essence, /^r esseniiant, all the same, 



310 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Et }ii/iilo»i!Hiis, therein, /;/ ets. 
Ex Jus (a via delinquenSj whoso dares 

To take a liberty on ground enough, 1285 

Is pardoned, exciisatur : that 's our case — 
y' Delinquent through befitting cause. You hold, 

/ y//' To punish a false wife in her own house 

//X Is graver than, what happens every day, 

y/ . To hale a debtor from his hiding-place 1290 

^ ^ t\/ ^"^ church protected by the Sacrament? 

~^/j To this conclusion have I brought my Fisc? 

^ y / Foxes have holes, and fowls o' the air their nests ; 
Praise you the impiety that follows, Fisc? 
Shall false wife yet have where to lay her head? 1295 

" Contra Fisciiiii definitH})i est ! " He 's done ! 
"• Surge et scribe,^'' make a note of it! 

— If I may dally with Aquinas' word. 

Or in the death-throe does he mutter still, 
/ cl Fourth aggravation, that we changed our garb. 1300 

\ And rusticized ourselves with uncouth hat, 

Rough vest and goatskin wrappage ; murdered thus 

Mutatione vestium, in disguise, 

Whereby mere murder got complexed with wile, 

Twrntd /to/nicidiu>n ex insidiis / Fisc, 1 3^5 

How often must I round thee in the ears — 

All means are lawful to a lawful end? 

Concede he had the right to kill his wife : 

The Count indulged in a travesty; why? 

De ilia ut vindictani su/ueret, 1310 

That on her he might lawful vengeance take, 

Comnwdius, with more ease, et tutius. 

And safelier: wants he warrant for the step? 

Read to thy profit how the Apostle once 

For ease and safety, when Damascus raged, 1315 

Was let down in a basket by the wall 

To 'scape the malice of the governor 

(Another sort of Governor boasts Rome!) 

— Many are of opinion, — covered close. 

Concealed with — what except that very cloak 1320 

He left behind at Troas afterward? 
I shall not add a syllable : Alolinists may! 
Well, liave we more to manage? Ay, indeed! 
^j Fifth aggravation, that our wife reposed 

Sub potestate judicis, beneath 1325 

Protection of the judge, — her house was styled 
A prison, and his power became its guard 
In lieu of wall and gate and bolt and bar. 
This is a tough point, shrewd, redoubtable : 



DOMINUS HYACINTHUS DE ARCHAXGELIS. 311 

Because we have to supplicate that judge 1330 

Shall overlook wrong done the judgment-seat. 

Now, I might suffer my own nose be pulled, 

As man : but then as father ... if the Fisc 

Touched one hair of my boy who held my hand 

In confidence he could not come to harm 1335 

Crossing the Corso, at my own desire, 

Going to see those bodies in the church — 

What would you say to that, Don Hyacinth? 

This is the sole and single knotty point : 

For, bid Tommati blink his interest, 1340 

You laud his magnanimity the while : 

But baulk Tommati's office, — he talks big ! 

" My predecessors in the place, — those sons 

O" the prophets that may hope succeed me here, — 

Shall I diminish their prerogative? 1345 

Count Guido Franceschini's honor! — well, 

Has the Governor of Rome none? " 

You perceive, 
The cards are all against us. Make a push. 
Kick over table, as shrewd gamesters do! 
We, do you say, encroach upon the rights, 1350 

Deny the omnipotence o' the Judge forsooth? 
We, who have only been from first to last 
Intending that his purpose should prevail, 
Nay more, at times, anticipating it 
At risk of his rebuke ? 

But wait awhile ! 1355 

"^ Cannot we lump this with the sixth and last 
Of the aggravations — that the Majesty 
O' the Sovereign here received a wound? to-wit, 
Lcesa Majestas, since our violence 

Was out of envy to the course of law, 1360 

In odium litis ? We cut short thereby 
Three pending suits, promoted by ourselves 
r the main, — which worsens crime, accedit ad 
Exasperatiotiem criviijtis ! 

Yes, here the eruptive wrath with full effect! 1365 

How, did not indignation chain my tongue, 

Could I repel this last, worst charge of all! 

(There is a porcupine to barbacue ; 

Gigia can jug a rabbit well enough. 

With sour-sweet sauce and pine-pips; but, good Lord, 1370 

Suppose the devil instigate the wench 

To stew, not roast him? Stew my porcupine? 



312 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

If she does, I know where his quills shall stick! 
Come, I must go myself and see to things : 
I cannot stay much longer stewing here.) 1375 

,_/ , Our stomach ... I mean, our soul is stirred within, 

And we want words. We wounded Majesty? 
Fall under such a censure, we? — who yearned 
So much that Majesty dispel the cloud 

And shine on us with healing on her wings, 1380 

That we prayed Pope Majestas' very self 
To anticipate a little the tardy pack, 
Bell us forth deep the authoritative bay 
Should start the beagles into sudden yelp 
Unisonous, — and. Gospel leading Law, 1385 

Grant there assemble in our own behoof 
A Congregation, a particular Court, 
A few picked friends of quality and place, 
To hear the several matters in dispute, — 
Causes big, little and indifferent, 1390 

Bred of our marriage like a mushroom-growth, — 
All at once (can one brush off such too soon?) 
And so with laudable despatch decide 
Whether we, in the main (to sink detail) 
Were one the Pope should hold fast or let go. 1395 

'•What, take the credit from the Law?" you ask? 
Indeed, we did! Law ducks to Gospel here: 
Why should Law gain the glory and pronounce 
A judgment shall immortalize the Pope? 

Yes : our self-abnegating policy 1400 

Was Joab's^ — we would rouse our David's sloth, 
Bid him encamp against a city, sack 
A place whereto ourselves had long laid siege, 
Lest, taking it at last, it take our name 

Nor be styled Iniiocentinopolis.- 1405 

But no! The modesty was in alarm. 
The temperance refused to interfere. 
Returned us our petition with the word 
'■'Adjudkes suos,'''' "Leave him to his Judge!" 
As who should say "Why trouble my repose? 1410 

Why consult Peter in a simple case, 
Peter''s wife's sister in her fever-fit 
Might solve as readily as the Apostle's self? 
Are my Tribunals posed by aught so plain? 
Hath not my Court a conscience? It is of age, 1415 

Ask it!" 

We do ask, — but, inspire reply 

' Was yoab's : see 2 Samuel xii. 26-29. " !n"Oceniinopolis : the city of Innocent. 



DOM/XL'S HVAC/XTHL'S DE ARCHAXGELIS. 313 

To the Court thou bidst me ask. as I have asked — 

Oh thou, who vigilantly dost attend 

To even the few, the ineffectual words 

Which rise from this our low and mundane sphere 1420 

Up to thy region out of smoke and noise, 

Seeking corroboration from thy nod 

Who art all justice — which means mercy too, 

In a low noisy smoky world like ours 

Where Adam's sin made peccable his seed! 1425 

We venerate the father of the fiock. 

Whose last faint sands of life, the frittered gold. 

Fall noiselessly, yet all too fast, o' the cone 

And tapering heap of those collected years : 

Never have these been hurried in their flow, 1430 

Though justice fain would jog reluctant arm, 

In eagerness to take the forfeiture 

Of guilty life : much less shall mercy sue 

In vain that thou let innocence survive. 

Precipitate no minim of the mass 1435 

O' the all-so-precious moments of thy life, 

By pushing Guido into death and doom! 

(Our Cardinal engages to go read 

The Pope my speech, and point its beauties out. 

They say, the Pope has one half-hour, in twelve, 1440 

Of something like a moderate return 

Of the intellectuals. — never much to lose! 

If I adroitly plant this passage there, 

The Fisc will find himself forestalled, I think. 

Though he stand, beat till the old ear-drum break! 1445 

— ^ Ah, boy of my own bowels. Hyacinth, 

Wilt ever catch the knack, requite the pains 

Of poor papa, become proficient too 

r the how and why and when, the time to laugh, 

The time to weep, the time, again, to pray, 145° 

And all the times prescribed by Holy Writ? 

Well, well, we fathers can but care, but cast 

Our bread upon the waters!) 

In a word. 
These secondary charges go to ground. 

Since secondary, and superfluous. — motes 1455 

Quite from the main point : we did all and some, 
Little and much, adjunct and principal. 
Causa honoris. Is there such a cause 
As the sake of honor? By that sole test try 
Our action, nor demand if more or less, 1460 

Because of the action's mode, we merit blame 



314 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Or maybe deserve praise! The Court decides. 

Is the end lawful? It allows the means : 

What we may do, we may with safety do. 

And what means "safety " we ourselves must judge. 1465 

Put case a person wrongs me past dispute : 

If my legitimate vengeance be a blow, 

Mistrusting my bare arm can deal that blow, 

I claim co-operation of a stick ; 

Doubtful if stick be tough, I crave a sword ; 1470 

Diffident of ability in fence, 

I fee a friend, a swordsman to assist : 

Take one — he may be coward, fool or knave : 

Why not take fifty? — and if these exceed 

I' the due degree of drubbing, whom accuse 1475 

But the first author of the aforesaid wrong 

Who put poor me to such a world of pains? 

Surgery would have just excised a wart ; 

The patient made such pother, struggled so 

That the sharp instrument sliced nose and all. 1480 

Taunt us not that our friends performed for pay ! 

Ourselves had toiled for simple honor's sake : 

But country clowns want dirt they comprehend. 

The piece of gold ! Our reasons, which suffice 

Ourselves, be ours alone ; our piece of gold 1485 

Be, to the rustic, reason he approves! 

We must translate our motives like our speech. 

Into the lower phrase that suits the sense 

O' the limitedly apprehensive. Let 

Each level have its language! Heaven speaks first 1490 

To the angel, then the angel tames the word 

Down to the ear of Tobit : 1 he, in turn. 

Diminishes the message to his dog. 

And finally that dog finds how the flea 

(Which else, importunate, might check his speed) 1495 

Shall learn its hunger must have holiday, 

By application of his tongue or paw : 

So many varied sorts of language here. 

Each following each with pace to match the step, 

Hand passibiis ceqiiis ! 

Talking of which flea, 1500 

Reminds me I must put in special word 
For the poor humble following, — the four friends, 
Sicarii, our assassins caught and caged. 
Ourselves are safe in your approval now : 
Yet must we care for our companions, plead 1505 

' Tobit : Apocrypha, Book of Tobit, v. and vi. 



DO.If/.VC'S IIVACIXTHUS DE ARCH. INC ELIS. 315 

The cause o' the poor, the friends (of old-world faith) 

Who lie in tribulation for our sake. 

J'anpenon Procurator is my style : 

I stand forth as the poor man's advocate : 

And when we treat of what concerns the poor, 15 10 

Et cum agatur de pauperibus, 

In bondage, carceratiSj for their sake, 

/;/ eorum causis, natural piety, 

Fietas, ever, ought to win the day, 

Triuiiiphare debet ^ quia ipsi sunt, IS 1 5 

Because those very ])aupers constitute. 

Thesaurus Christ!, all the wealth of Christ. 

Nevertheless I shall not hold you long 

With multiplicity of proofs, nor burn 

Candle at noon-tide, clarify the clear. 1520 

There beams a case refulgent from our books — 

Castrensis, Butringarius.^ everywhere 

1 find it burn to dissipate the dark. 

"T is this : a husband had a friend, which friend 

Seemed to him over-friendly with his wife ^5-5 

In thought and purpose, — I pretend no more. 

To justify suspicion or dispel. 

He bids his wife make show of giving heed. 

Semblance of sympathy — propose, in fine, 

A secret meeting in a private place. 1530 

The friend, enticed thus, finds an ambuscade, 

To-wit, the husband posted with a pack 

Of other friends, who fall upon tiie first 

And beat his love and life out both at once. 

Tiiese friends were brought to question for their help; 1535 

Law ruled "The husband being in the right. 

Who helped him in the right can scarce be wrong " — 

Opinio, an opinion every way, 

Multuni tejienda cordi, heart should hold! 

When the inferiors follow as befits 1540 

The lead o' the principal, they change their name, 

.'Xnd, nan dicuntur, are no longer called 

His mandatories, niandatorii, 

But helpmates, sed auxiliatores ; since 

To that degree does honor's sake lend aid, 1545 

Adeo honoris causa est efficax. 

That not alone, non solum, does it pour 

Itself out, se diffundat, on mere friends. 

We bring to do our bidding of this sort, 

/// mandatorios simplices, but sucks 1550 

' Castrensis, Butringarius : Paulus de should be spelt), jurists of the sixteenth cen- 
Castro and Jacobus Butrigarius (as the name tury. 



3i6 THE RIiVC AIVD THE BOOK. 

Along with it in wide and generous whirl, 

Sed etiam assassinii qiialitate 

Qualificatos^ people qualified 

By the quality of assassination's self, 

Dare I make use of such neologism, 1555 

Ut utar verba. 

Haste we to conclude. 
Of the other points that favor, leave some few 
For Spreti ; such as the delinquents'" youth. 
One of them falls short, by some months, of age 
Fit to be managed by the gallows ; two 1560 

May plead exemption from our law's award. 
Being foreigners, subjects of the Granduke — 
I spare that bone to Spreti, and reserve 
Myself the juicier breast of argument — 

Flinging the breast-blade i' the face o' the Fisc, 1565 

Who furnished me the tid-bit : he must needs 
Play off his privilege and rack the clowns, — 
And they, at instance of the rack, confess 
AH four unanimously made resolve, — 

The night o' the murder, in brief minute snatched 1570 

Behind the back of Guido as he fled, — 
That, since he had not kept his promise, paid 
The money for the murder on the spot. 
So, reaching home again, might please ignore 
The pact or pay them in improper coin, — 1575 

They one and all resolved, these hopeful friends, 
'T were best inaugurate the morrow's light, 
Nature recruited with her due repose, 
By killing Guido as he lay asleep 
Pillowed on wallet which contained their fee. 1580 

I thank the Fisc for knowledge of this fact : 

What fact could hope to make more manifest 

Their rectitude. Guido's integrity? 

For who fails recognize the touching truth 

That these poor rustics bore no envy, hate, 1585 

Malice nor yet uncharitableness 

Against the people they had put to death ? 

In them, did such an act reward itself? 

All done was to deserve the simple pay, 

Obtain the bread clowns earn by sweat of brow, 1590 

And missing which, they missed of everything — 

Hence claimed pay, even at expense of life 

To their own lord, so little warped (admire!) 

By prepossession, such the absolute 

Instinct of equity in rustic souls! 1595 



DOM IXC'S HYACIXTHUS DE ARCHANGEUS. 317 

Whereas our Count, the cultivated mind, 

He, wholly rapt in his serene regard 

Of honor, he contemplating the sun 

Who hardly marks if taper blink below. — 

He, dreaming of no argument for death 1600 

Except a vengeance worthy noble hearts, — 

Dared not so desecrate the deed, forsooth, 

Vulgarize vengeance, as defray its cost 

B\- money dug from out the dirty earth, 

Irritant mere, in Ovid's phrase, to ill. 1605 

What though he lured base hinds by lucre's hope, — 

The only motive they could masticate, 

Milk for babes, not strong meat which men require? 

The deed done, those coarse hands were soiled enough, 

He spared them the pollution of the pay. 1610 

So much for the allegement, thine, my Fisc, 

Quo nil absiirdiiis, than which naught more mad, 

Excogitari potest, may be squeezed 

From out the cogitative brain of thee! 

And now, thou excellent the Governor! 1615 

(Push to the peroration) ccetermn 

Enixe siipplko, I strive in prayer, 

Ut dominis meis, that unto the Court, 

Be nigna front e, with a gracious brow, 

Et ociiHs serenis, and mild eyes, 1620 

Perpe)uiere placeat, it may please them weigh. 

Quod dominus Gttido, that our noble Count, 

Occidit, did the killing in dispute, 

Ut ejus honor tu/nulatus, that 

The honor of him buried fathom-deep 1625 

In infamy, /// infainia, might arise, 

Resurgeret, as ghost breaks sepulchre! 

Occidit, for he killed, uxoreni, wife. 

Quia illi fuit, since she was to him, 

Opprobrio, a disgrace and nothing more! 1630 

Et genitores. killed her parents too. 

Qui. who, postposita verecundia. 

Having thrown ofT all sort of decency, 

Filiani repudiarunt, had renounced 

Their daughter, atque declarare non 1635 

Erubuerunt, nor felt blush tinge cheek. 

Declaring, meretricis genitam 

Esse, she was the offspring of a drab, 

Ut ipse dehonestaretur. just 

That so himself might lose his social rank! 1640 

Cujus nienteni, and which daughter's heart and soul. 

They, perverterunt, turned from the right course, 

Et ad illicitos atnores non 



3i8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Dinntaxat pellexentnt, and to love 

Not simply did alluringly incite, 1645 

Sed vi obedienticE. but by force 

O' the dniy.Jilialis, daughters owe, 

Coegermit, forced and drove her to the deed : 

Occidit, I repeat he killed the clan, 

Ne scilicet aniplius in dedecore, 1650 

Lest peradventure longer life might trail, 

Viveret, link by link his turpitude, 

Invistis consangiiineis, hateful so 

To kith and kindred, a nobilibus 

Notatiis. shunned by men of quality, 1655 

Relictiis ab ainicis, left i' the lurch 

By friends, ab omtiibus derisiis, turned 

A common hack-block to try edge of jokes. 

Occidit. and he killed them here in Rome, 

/// Ui'be^ the Eternal City, Sirs, 1660 

Nempe qtice alias spectata est. 

The appropriate theatre which witnessed once, 

Matronani nobileni, Lucretia's self, 

Ablue7'e pudicitice niaculas. 

Wash off the spots of her pudicity, 1665 

Sanguine propria, with her own pure blood ; 

QucE vidit, and which city also saw, 

Patrem, Virginius, nndequaqiie, quite, 

Impunem, with no sort of punishment, 

Nor, et non illaiidatitni, lacking praise, 1670 

Sed polluenteni parricidio, 

Imbrue his hands with butchery, yf//d?, 

Of chaste Virginia, to avoid a rape, 

Ne raperetiir ad stiipra ; so to heart, 

Tanti illi cordi fnit , did he take, 1675 

Suspicio, the mere fancy men might have, 

Honoris amittendi, of fame's loss, 

Ut potius voluerit filia 

Orbari, he preferred to lose his child, 

Qiiam ilia incederet, rather than she walk 1680 

The ways an, ijthonesta, child disgraced, 

Licet 7ion sponte, though against her will. 

Occidit — killed them, I reiterate ■ — 

In propria domo, in their own abode, 

Ut adult era et parcntes, that each wretch, 1685 

Conscii agnoscerent, might both see and say, 

Nrdhim locum, there 's no place, tiiilliimque esse 

Asylum, nor yet refuge of escape, 

Impenetrabiloii, shall serve as bar, 

Honori Iceso, to the wounded one 1690 

In honor; neve ibi opprobria 



DOM /XL'S HVAC/WIirS DE ARCHANGEL/ S. 319 

Co)itinttarentu}\ killed them on the spot, 
Moreover, dreading lest within those walls 
The opprobrium peradventure be prolonged, 
Et domtis (]U(P testis ftiit titrpiii/n, 1695 

And that the domicile which witnessed crime, 
Esset ct piv/ice, might watch punishment : 
Occidit. killed, I round you in the ears, 
(2iiia alio inodo, since by other mode, 

Xon potcrat ejus cxistimatiiu 1700 

There was no possibility his fame, 
Lcesa, gashed griesly, tain enor miter, 
Ducere cicatrices, might be healed : 
Occidit lit exeinpluvi prceberet 

UxoribuSs killed her, so to lesson wives 1705 

Jura conjiii^ii, that the marriage-oath. 
Esse servanda, must be kept henceforth : 
Occidit deniqite, killed her, in a word, 
(Jt pro posse honest ns viveret, 

That he, please (iod, might creditably live, 17 10 

Sin minus, but if fate willed otherwise, 
Proprii honoris, of his outraged fame, 
Offensi, by Mannaia, if you please, 
Commiseranda I'ictima caderet. 
The pitiable victim he should fall! 17 15 

Done! I" the rough, i' the rough! But done! And, lo. 

Landed and stranded lies my very speech. 

My miracle, my monster of defence — 

Leviathan into the nose whereof 

I have put fish-hook, pierced his jaw with thorn, 1720 

And given him to my maidens for a play! 

r the rough : to-morrow I review my piece. 

Tame here and there undue floridity. 

It "s hard : you have to plead before these priests 

And poke at them with Scripture, or you pass 1725 

For heathen and, what \s worse, for ignorant 

O' the quality o' the Court and what it likes 

By way of illustration of the law. 

To-morrow stick in this, and throw out that, 

And. having first ecclesiasticized, 173° 

^; Regularize the whole, next e.mjjhasize, 
^;' Tiien l atiniz e, and lastlv Qicero-ize, 
/ Giving my Fisc his finish. There 's my speech! 
^ And where 's my fry, and family and friends? 

Where \s that huge Hyacinth I mean to hug 1735 

Till he cries out, "Jam satis ! Let me breathe! " 

Now, what an evening have I earned to-day! 

Hail, ye true pleasures, all the rest are false! 



320 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Oh the old mother, oh the fattish wife! 

Rogue Hyacinth shall put on paper toque. 1740 

And wrap himself around with mamma's veil 

Done up to imitate papa's black robe, 

(I 'm in the secret of the comedy, — 

Part of the program leaked out long ago !) 

And call himself the Advocate o' the Poor, 1745 

Mimic Don father that defends the Count : 

And for reward shall have a small full glass 

Of manly red rosolio to himself, 

— Always provided that he conjugate 

Bibo, I drink, correctly — nor be found 175° 

Make \\\& perfect iiin, bipsi} as last year! 

How the ambitious do so harden heart 

As lightly hold by these home-sanctitudes. 

To me is matter of bewilderment — 

Bewilderment! Because ambition's range 1755 

Is nowise tethered by domestic tie. 

Am I refused an outlet from my home 

To the world's stage? — whereon a man should play 

The man in public, vigilant for law, 

Zealous for truth, a credit to his kind, 1760 

Nay, — since, employing talent so, I yield 

The Lord His own again with usury, — 

A satisfaction, yea, to God himself! 

Well, I have modelled me by Agur's wish, 

" Remove far from me vanity and lies, 1765 

Feed me with food convenient for me ! " What 

r the world should a wise man require beyond ? 

Can I but coax the good fat little wife 

To tell her fool of a father the mad prank 

His scapegrace nephew played this time last year 1770 

At Carnival! He could not choose, I think, 

But modify that inconsiderate gift 

O' the cup and cover (somewhere in the will 

Under the pillow, someone seems to guess) 

— Correct that clause in favor of a boy 1775 
The trifle ought to grace, with name engraved. 

Would look so well, produced in future years 

To pledge a memory, when poor papa 

Latin and law are long since laid at rest — 

Hyacintlio dpiw dedit avjis I Why, 1780 

The wife should get a necklace for her pains. 

The very pearls that made Violante proud. 

And Pietro pawned for half their value once, — 

Redeemable by somebody, ne sit 

' Bipsi : the perfect should be bibi. 



DOM/XCS HYACLYTHUS DE ARCHANGEUS. 321 

Marita qucF rotundioribus 1785 

Onusta mamviis . . . baccis anibulet : 

Her bosom shall display the big round balls, 

No braver proudly borne by wedded wife! 

With which Horatian promise ^ I conclude. 

Into the pigeon-hole with thee, my speech! 1790 

Oft" and away, first work then play, play, play! 
Bottini, burn thy books, thou blazing ass! 
Sing ''Tra-la-la, for lambkins, we must live!" 

' Horatian promise : Horace, " Epodes," 8, 13. 



322 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 



IX. 

JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAPTISTA BOTTINIUS, 
FISCI ET REV. CAM. APOSTOL. ADVOCATUS. 

[Pompilia's advocate, Dr. Bottinius, is presented in Book IX. in the process of 
writing down his speech. He builds, even out of the questionable and already 
refuted evidence brought against his client, a justification of her course as the only 
one a defenceless woman could take to avoid greater evil. He makes as elaborate 
claims for her purity as are consistent with the politic attitude of a man of the world 
toward the weakness of womanhood, adorning his speech with learned literary 
allusions ingeniously devised not only to throw an effective light upon his plea, but 
also to display becomingly his cultured style.] 

Had I God's leave, how I would alter things! 

If I might read instead of print my speech, — 

Ay, and enliven speech with many a flower 

Refuses obstinate to blow in print, 

As wildings planted in a prim parterre, — 5 

This scurvy room were turned an immense hall ; 

Opposite, fifty judges in a row ; 

This side and that of me, for audience — Rome : 

And, where yon window is, the Pope should hide — 

Watch, curtained, but peep visibly enough. 10 

A buzz of expectation! Through the crowd. 

Jingling his chain and stumping with his staff. 

Up comes an usher, louts him low, " The Court 

Requires the allocution of the Fisc ! " 

I rise. I bend, I look about me. pause '15 

O'er the hushed multitude : I count — One, two 



Have ye seen, Judges, have ye, lights of law, — 

When it may hap some painter, much in vogue 

Throughout our city nutritive of arts. 

Ye summon to a task shall test his worth, 20 

And manufacture, as he knows and can, 

A work may decorate a palace-wall, 

Afford my lords their Holy Family, — 

Hath it escaped the acumen of the Court 

How such a painter sets himself to paint? 25 

Suppose that Joseph, Mary and her Babe 

A-journeying to Egypt, prove the piece : 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAPTISTA BOTTIXIL'S. 323 

Why, first he sedulously practiseth, 
This painter, — girding loin and lighting lamp, — 
On what may nourish eye, make facile hand ; 30 

(ietteth him studies (styled by draughtsmen so) 
From some assistant corpse of Jew or Turk 
Or. haply, Molinist, he cuts and carves, — 
This Luca or this Carlo or the like. 

To him the bones their inmost secret yield, 35 

Each notcli and nodule signify their use : 
On him the muscles turn, in triple tier, 
And pleasantly entreat the entrusted man 
'• Familiarize thee with our play that lifts 

Thus, and thus lowers again, leg, arm and foot!" 40 

— Ensuring due correctness in the nude. 
Which done, is all done? Not a whit, ye know! 
He. — to art's surface rising from her depth, — 
If some tla.x-polled soft-bearded sire be found, 
May simulate a Joseph, (happy chance!) — 45 

Limneth exact each wrinkle of the brow, 
Loseth no involution, cheek or chap, 
Till lo, in black and white, the senior lives! 
Is it a young and comely peasant-nurse 

That poseth? (be the phrase accorded me!) 50 

Each feminine delight of florid lip. 
Eyes brimming o'er and brow bowed down with love. 
Marmoreal neck and bosom uberous,^ — 
Glad on the paper in a trice they go 

To help his notion of the Mother-maid : 55 

Methinks I see it, chalk a little stumped! 
Yea and her babe — that flexure of soft limbs, 
'That budding face imi^ued with dewy sleep. 
Contribute each an excellence to Christ. 

Nay, since he humbly lent companionship, 60 

Even the poor ass, unpanniered and elate 
Stands, perks an ear up, he a model too ; 
While clouted shoon, staff, scrip and water-gourd, — 
Aught may betoken travel, heat and haste. — 
No jot nor tittle of these but in its turn 65 

Ministers to perfection of the piece : 
Till now. such piece before him, part by part, — 
Such prelude ended, — pause our painter may. 
Submit his fifty studies one by one, 
And in some sort boast "' I have served my lords." 70 

But what? And hath he p;iinted once this while? 
Or when ye cry " Produce the thing required, 

' Uberoiis : full. 



324 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Show us our picture shall rejoice its niche, 

Thy Journey through the Desert done in oils!" — 

What, doth he fall to shuffling 'mid his sheets, 75 

Fumbling for first this, then the other fact 

Consigned to paper, — "studies," bear the term! — 

And stretch a canvas, mix a pot of paste, 

And fasten here a head and there a tail, 

(The ass hath one, my Judges!) so dove-tail 80 

Or, rather, ass-tail in, piece sorrily out — 

By bits of reproduction of the life — 

The picture, the expected Family? 

I trow not! do I miss with my conceit 

The mark, my lords? — not so my lords were served! 85 

Rather your artist turns abrupt from these, 

And preferably buries him and broods 

( Quite away from aught vulgar and extern) 

On the inner spectrum, filtered through the eye, 

His brain-deposit, bred of many a drop, 90 

E pluribus unnm: ^ and the wiser he! 

For in that brain, — their fancy sees at work. 

Could my lords peep indulged, — results alone. 

Not processes which nourish such results. 

Would they discover and appreciate, — life 95 

Fed by digestion, not raw food itself. 

No gobbets but smooth comfortable chyme "^ 

Secreted from each snapped-up crudity, — 

Less distinct, part by part, but in the whole 

Truer to the subject, — the main central truth loo 

And soul o' the picture, would my Judges spy, — 

Not those mere fragmentary studied facts 

Which answer to the outward frame and flesh — 

Not this nose, not that eyebrow, the other fact 

Of man's staff, woman's stole or infant's clout, 105 

But lo, a spirit-birth conceived of flesh. 

Truth rare and real, not transcripts, fact and false. 

The studies — for his pupils and himself! 

The picture be for our eximious^ Rome 

And — who knows? — satisfy its Governor, no 

Whose new wing to the villa he hath bought 

(God give him joy of it) by Capena, soon 

("T is bruited) shall be glowing with the brush 

Of who hath long surpassed the Florentine,* 

The Urbinate^ and . . . what if I dared add, 115 

' E pluribus unum : "one made out of ' Exiiitious : select or fastidious, 

many " (Virgil, " Moretum," 103). * The Florentine : Michel Angelo. 

2 Chyme : the matter into which food is ^ TAe Urbinate : Rafael, 
reduced by the juices of the stomach. 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAFTISTA BOTTIXIfS. 325 

Even his master, yea tlie Cortonese, — 
I mean the accomplished Giro Ferri,^ Sirs! 
( — Did not he die? 1 '11 see before I print.) 

End we exordium, Phoebus plucks my ear! 

Thus then, just so and no whit otiierwise, 120 

Have I, — engaged as I were Giro's self, 

To paint a parallel, a Family, 

The patriarch Pietro with his wise old wife 

To boot (as if one introduced Saint Anne 

By bold conjecture to complete the group) 125 

And juvenile Pompilia with her babe. 

Who, seeking safety in the wilderness. 

Were all surprised by Herod, while outstretched 

In sleep beneath a palm-tree by a spring. 

And killed — the very circumstance I paint, 130 

Moving the pity and terror of my lords — 

Exactly so have I, a month at least. 

Your Fiscal, made me cognizant of facts. 

Searched out, pried into, pressed the meaning forth 

Of every piece of evidence in point, 135 

How bloody Herod slew these innocents, — 

Until the glad result is gained, the group 

Demonstrably presented in detail. 

Their slumber and his onslaught, — like as life. 

Yea and, availing me of help allowed 140 

By law, discreet provision lest my lords 

Be too much troubled by effrontery. — 

The rack, law plies suspected crime withal — 

(Law that hath listened while the lyrist sang 

" Lene torinentum im^enio admovcs,^'' - 145 

Gently thou joggest, by a twinge the wit, 

'' Pleruingue dura,'' else were slow to blab!) 

Through this concession my full cup runs o'er: 

The guilty owns his guilt without reserve. ' 

Therefore by part and part I clutch my case 150 

Which, in entirety now, — momentous task, — 

.My lords demand, so render them I must. 

Since, one poor pleading more and I have done. 

But shall I ply my ])apers, play my proofs, 

Parade my studies, fifty in a row, 155 

As though the Gourt were yet in pupilage, 

Glaimed not the artist's ultimate appeal? 

> CiroFerri: a painter (1634-1689), pupil '^ Lene tormetitum, tic: Browning himself 

of Pietro da Cortona, who died about nine supplies a translation, so that it is not neces- 
years before Dr. Bottinius wrote his speech. sary here and in other such places to give an 

English version. 



326 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Much rather let me soar the height prescribed 

And, bowing low, proffer my picture's self! 

No more of proof, disproof, — such virtue was, l6o 

Such vice was never in Pompilia, now! 

Far better say " Behold Pompilia! " — (for 

I leave the family as unmanageable, 

And stick to just one portrait, but life-size.) 

Hath calumny imputed to the fair 165 

A blemish, mole on cheek or wart on chin. 

Much more, blind hidden horrors best unnamed? 

Shall I descend to prove you, point by point, 

Never was knock-knee known nor splay-foot found 

In Phryne?^ (I must let the portrait go, 170 

Content me with the model. I believe) — 

— I prove this? An indignant sweep of hand. 
Dash at and doing away with drapery. 

And, — use your eyes, Athenians, smooth she smiles! 

Or, — since my client can no longer smile, 175 

And more appropriate instances abound, — 

What is this Tale of Tarquin, how the slave 

Was caught by him, preferred to Collatine ? - 

Thou, even from thy corpse-clothes virginal, 

Look'st the lie dead, Lucretia! 

Thus at least 180 

I, by the guidance of antiquity, 
(Our one infallible guide) now operate. 
Sure that the innocence thus shown is safe ; 
Sure, too, that while I plead, the echoes cry, 
(Lend my weak voice thy trump, sonorous Fame!) 185 

" Monstrosity the Phrynean shape shall mar. 
Lucretia's soul comport with Tarquin's lie. 
When thistles grow on vines or thorns yield figs. 
Or oblique sentence leave this judgment-seat! " 

A great theme : may my strength be adequate! 190 

For — paint Pompilia, dares my feebleness? 
How did I unaware engage so much 

— Find myself undertaking to produce 
A faultless nature in a flawless form ? 

What \s here? Oh, turn aside nor dare the blaze 195 

Of such a crown, such constellation, say. 
As jewels here thy front. Humanity! 

' Phryiie : alluding to the defence of the that he would swear he had found Lucretia 

courtesan Phryne by Hypendes, who secured with a slave of her husband's, if she did not 

a verdict by displaying her unveiled beauty yield to his wishes. The stab she gave her- 

to the court. self in presence of Brutus and Collatinus 

* Ta!e of . . . the slave . . . preferred struck " the lie dead." See Shakespeare's 

to Collatine : the threat of Sextus Tarquinius, " Lucrece," 512 and 1850. 



lURIS DOCTOR JOHAXXES-BAPTISTA BOTTIXIUS. 327 

First, infancy, pellucid as a pearl ; 

Then childhood — stone which, dew-drop at the first, 

(An old conjecture) sucks, by dint of gaze, 200 

Blue from the sky and turns to sapphire so : 

Yet both these gems eclipsed by, last and best, 

Womanliness and wifehood opaline, 

Its milk-white pallor, — chastity, — suffused 

With here and there a tint and hint of flame, — 205 

Desire, — the lapidary loves to find. 

Such jewels bind conspicuously thy brow, 

Pompilia, infant, child, maid, woman, wife — 

Crown the ideal in our earth at last! 

What should a faculty like mine do here? 210 

Close eyes, or else, the rashlier hurry hand! 

Which is to say, — lose no time but begin! 

Serjnocinando >ie decUmicin, Sirs, 

Ultra clepsydrcDii} as our preachers smile, 

Lest I exceed my hour-glass. Whereupon, 215 

As Flaccus - prompts, I dare the epic plunge — 

Begin at once with marriage, up till when 

Little or nothing would arrest your love. 

In the easeful life o' the lady ; lamb and lamb. 

How do they differ? Know one, you know all 220 

Manners of maidenhood : mere maiden she. 

And since all lambs are like in more than fleece. 

Prepare to find that, lamb-like, she too frisks — 

O' the weaker sex, my lords, the weaker sex! 

To whom, the Teian^ teaches us, for gift, 225 

Not strength, — man's dower, — but beautw nature gave, 

"Beauty in lieu of spears, in lieu of shields!" 

And what is beauty's sure concomitant, 

Nay, intimate essential character, 

But melting wiles, deliciousest deceits, 230 

The wliole redoubted armory of love? 

Therefore of vernal i:)ranks, dishevellings 

O' the hair of youth that dances April in. 

And easily-imagined Hebe-slips 

O'er sward wliich May makes over-smooth for foot — 235 

These shall we pry into ? — or wiselier wink. 

Though numerous and dear they may have been? 

* Sertnocitiandoy etc.: let me not declaim a gulf of teeth to lions, the power of swim- 
beyond the clock with my discoursing. ming to fishes, flight to birds, thoughtfulness 

' Flaccus : Horace, " Odes," ii. 4, 17. to men; for women she had naught besides. 

' TAe Teian : Anacreon, born at Teos in What then does she give? Heauty Instead of 

Ionia. The allusion is to Anacreon's second all shield, instead of all spears? and any one 

" Ode." " Nature gave horns to bulls, and being beautiful, vanquishes both steel and 

hoofs to horses, swift-footedness to hares, fire." 



328 THE RING AXD THE BOOK 

For lo, advancing Hymen and his pomp! 

Discediint 7Utnc ainores, loves, farewell! 

Maneat amor, let love, the sole, remain! 240 

Farewell to dewiness and prime of life! 

Remains the rough determined day : dance done. 

To work, with plough and harrow ! What comes next ? 

'T is Guido henceforth guides Pompilia's step, 

Cries " No more friskings o'er the foodful glebe, 245 

Else, 'ware the whip!" Accordingly, — first crack 

O' the thong, — we hear that his young wife was barred, 

Cohibita fidt, from the old free life, 

Vita 1)1 Uberiorein ditcere. 

Demur we? Nowise: heifer brave the hind? 250 

We seek not there should lapse the natural law, 

The proper piety to lord and king 

And husband : let the heifer bear the yoke! 

Only, I crave he cast not patience oif", 

This hind ; for deem you she endures the whip, 255 

Nor winces at the goad, nay, restive, kicks ? 

What if the adversary's charge be just, 

And all untowardly she pursue her way 

With groan and grunt, though hind strike ne'er so hard? 

If petulant remonstrance made appeal, 260 

Unseasonable, o'erprotracted, — if 

Importunate challenge taxed the public ear 

When silence more decorously had served 

For protestation, — if Pompilian plaint 

Wrought but to aggravate Guidonian ire, — 265 

Why, such mishaps, ungainly though they be, 

Ever companion change, are incident 

To altered modes and novelty of life : 

The philosophic mind expects no less. 

Smilingly knows and names the crisis, sits 270 

Waiting till old things go and new arrive. 

Therefore, I hold a husband but inept 

Who turns impatient at such transit-time, 

As if this running from the rod would last! 

Since, even while I speak, the end is reached : 275 

Success awaits the soon-disheartened man. 

The parents turn their backs and leave the house, 

The wife may wail but none shall intervene : 

He hath attained his object, groom and bride 

Partake the nuptial bow^r no soul can see, 280 

Old things are passed and all again is new, 

Over and gone the obstacles to peace, 

Novorum — tenderly the Mantuan ^ turns 

1 The Mantuan : Virgil. The quotation and reference is to the eclogue where Virgil 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHAXXES-nAPT/STA BOTTIXIUS. 329 

The expression, some such purpose in his eye — 

Nascitur ordo '. Every storm is laid, 2S5 

And forth from plain each pleasant herb may peep, 

Each bloom of wifehood in abeyance late : 

(Confer a passage in the Canticles.) ^ 

But what if, as 't is wont with plant and wife. 

Flowers, — after a suppression to good end, 290 

Still, when they do spring forth, — sprout here, spread there, 

Anywhere likelier than beneath the foot 

O' the lawful good-man gardener of the ground ? 

He dug and dibbled.- sowed and watered, — still 

'T is a chance wayfarer shall pluck the increase. 295 

Just so, respecting persons not too much, 

The lady, foes allege, put forth each charm 

And proper floweret of feminity 

To whosoever had a nose to smell 

Or breast to deck : what if the charge be true? 300 

The fault were graver had she looked with choice. 

Fastidiously appointed who should grasp, 

Who, in the whole town, go without the prize ! 

To nobody she destined donative. 

But, first come was first served, the accuser saith. 305 

Put case her sort of ... in this kind . . . escapes 

Were many and oft and indiscriminate — 

Impute ye as the action were prepense. 

The gift particular, arguing malice so? 

Which butterfly of the wide air shall brag 310 

" I was preferred to Guido " — when \ is clear 

The cup, he quaffs at, lay with olent ^ breast 

Open to gnat, midge, bee and moth as well? 

One chalice entertained the company ; 

And if its peevish lord object the more, 315 

i\listake, misname such bounty in a wife. 

Haste we to advertise him — charm of cheek, 

Lustre of eye, allowance of the lip. 

All womanly components in a spouse. 

These are no household-bread each stranger's bite 320 

Leaves by so much diminished for tlie mouth 

O' the master of the house at supper-time : 

But rather like a lump of spice they lie, 

Morsel of myrrh, which scents the neighborhood 

Yet greets its lord no lighter by a grain. 325 

sings the coming of a new era, the joys of * Dibbled : used a dibble, a pointed instrii- 
renewed life, and the birth of a child of prom- ment for making holes in the ground, 
ise. " Eclogues," 4, 5. ^ Olent : odorous. 

• Passage in the Canticles : Song of Solo- 
mon ii. 11-14, 



330 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Nay, even so, he shall be satisfied! 

Concede we there was reason in his wrong, 

Grant we his grievance and content the man! 

For lo, Pompilia, she submits herself; 

Ere three revolving years have crowned their course, 330 

Off and away she puts this same reproach 

Of lavish bounty, inconsiderate gift 

O' the sweets of wifehood stored to other ends : 

No longer shall he blame " She none excludes," 

But substitute " She laudably sees all, 335 

Searches the best out and selects the same." 

For who is here, long sought and latest found, 

Waiting his turn unmoved amid the whirl, 

" Const a>is in kintate^'' — Ha, my lords? 

Calm in his levity, — indulge the quip! — 340 

Since 't is a levite bears the bell away. 

Parades him henceforth as Pompilia's choice. 

'T is no ignoble object, husband! Doubfst? 

When here comes tripping Flaccus ^ with his phrase 

"Trust me, no miscreant singled from the mob, 345 

Crede nan illuin tibi de scelesta 

Plebe delednni^^ but a man of mark, 

A priest, dost hear? Why then, submit thyself! 

Priest, ay and very phoenix of such fowl, 

Well-born, of culture, young and vigorous, 350 

Comely too, since precise the precept points — 

On the selected levite be there found 

Nor mole nor scar nor blemish, lest the mind 

Come all uncandid through the thwarting flesh! 

Was not the son of Jesse ruddy, sleek, 355 

Pleasant to look on, pleasant every way? 

Since well he smote the harp and sweetly sang. 

And danced till Abigail came out to see, 

And seeing smiled and smiling ministered 

The raisin-cluster and the cake of figs. 360 

With ready meal refreshed the gifted youth, 

Till Nabal,- who was absent shearing siieep. 

Felt heart sink, took to bed (discreetly done — 

They might have been beforehand with him else) 

And died — would Guido have behaved as well! 365 

But ah, the faith of early days is gone. 

Hen prisca fides ! ^ Nothing died in him 

Save courtesy, good sense and proper trust. 

Which, when they ebb from souls they should overflow. 

Discover stub, weed, sludge and ugliness. 37° 

^ F/accus : Horace," Odes," 11.4, 17. ^ Heu prisca /ides : "alas, the antique 

- Abigail . . . ministered . . . till Na- faith." 
bal, etc. : I Samuel xxv. 18, 37, 42. 



JTRIS DOCTOR JOHAXXES-BAPT/STA BOTTIXIUS. 331 

I The Pope, we know, is Neapolitan 

And relishes a sea-side simile.) 

Deserted by each charitable wave, 

Guido, left high and dry, shows jealous now! 

Jealous avouched, paraded : tax the fool 375 

With any peccadillo, he responds 

"Truly I beat my wife tlirough jealousy, 

Imprisoned her and punislied otherwise. 

Being jealous : now would threaten, sword in hand, 

Now manage to mix poison in her sight, 380 

And so forth : jealously 1 dealt, in fine." 

Concede thus much, and what remains to prove? 

Have I to teach my masters what effect 

Hath jealousy, and how, befooling men, 

It makes false true, abuses eye and ear, 385 

Turns mere mist adamantine, loads with sound 

Silence, and into void and vacancy 

Crowds a whole phalanx of conspiring foes? 

Therefore who owns "I watched with jealousy 

Mv wife," adds "for no reason m the world! " 390 

What need that, thus proved madman, he remarked 

" The thing I thought a serpent proved an eel '" ? — 

Perchance the right Comacchian,' six foot length. 

And not an inch too long for that rare pie 

(Master Arcangeli has heard of such) 395 

Whose succulence makes fasting bearable ; 

Meant to regale some moody splenetic 

Who, pleasing to mistake the donor's gift. 

Spying I know not what Lernsan snake '^ 

r the luscious Lenten creature, stamps forsooth 4CXD 

The dainty in the dust. 

Enough! Prepare, 
Such lunes announced, for downright lunacy! 
Insatiit homo? threat succeeds to threat. 
And blow redoubles blow, — his wife, the block. 
But, if a block, shall not she jar the hand 405 

That buffets her? The injurious idle stone 
Rebounds and hits the head of him who flung. 
Causeless rage breeds, i' the wife now, rageful cause. 
Tyranny wakes rebellion from its sleep. 

Rebellion, say I? — rather, self-defence, 410 

Laudable wish to live and see good days. 
Pricks our Pompilia now to fly the fool 

^ Comaccltian : a kind of eel, a dainty ^ Insanit homo : " the man is insane," 

highly prized. 

■ Lcrnteaii snaki : the hydra of Lerna, 
killed by Hercules. 



332 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

By any means, at any price, — nay, more, 

Nay, most of all, i' the very interest 

O' the fool that, baffled of his blind desire 415 

At any price, were truliest victor so. 

Shall he effect his crime and lose his soul? 

No, dictates duty to a loving wife! 

Far better that the unconsummate blow. 

Adroitly baulked by her, should back again, 420 

Correctively admonish his own pate! 

Crime then, — the Court is with me? — she must crush : 

How crush it? By all efficacious means ; 

And these, — why, what in woman should they be? 

" With horns the bull, with teeth the lion fights ; 425 

To woman," quoth the lyrist quoted late,^ 

"Nor teeth, nor horns, but beauty. Nature gave." 

Pretty i' the Pagan! Who dares blame the use 

Of armory thus allowed for natural, — 

Exclaim against a seeming-dubious play 430 

O' the sole permitted weapon, spear and shield 

Alike, resorted to i' the circumstance 

By poor Pompilia? Grant she somewhat plied 

Arts that allure, the magic nod and wink, 

The witchery of gesture, spell of word, 435 

Whereby the likelier to enlist this friend. 

Yea stranger, as a champion on her side? 

Such man, being but mere man, ('twas all she knew). 

Must be made sure by beauty's silken bond, 

The weakness that subdues the strong, and bows 440 

Wisdom alike and folly. Grant the tale 

O' the husband, which is false, were proved and true 

To the letter — or the letters, I should say, 

Abominations he professed to find 

And fix upon Pompilia and the priest, — 445 

Allow them hers — for though she could not write. 

In early days of Eve-like innocence 

That plucked no apple from the knowledge-tree, 

Yet, at the Serpent's word, Eve plucks and eats 

And knows — especially how to read and write : 45° 

And so Pompilia, — as the move o' the maw. 

Quoth Persius,'^ makes a parrot bid " Good day! " 

A crow salute the concave, and a pie 

Endeavor at proficiency in speech, — 

1 The lyrist quoted late : Anacreon in his tempt the feat of talking like men? That 
" Ode on Women" already given, 226. great teacher of art and bestower of mother- 

2 Persius : Epilogue to " Satires," 6-13. wit, the stomach, which has a knack of getting 
" Who was it made the parrot so glib with its at speech when Nature refuses it." 

' good-morning,' and taught magpies to at- 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANXES-BAPTISTA BOTTINIUS. m 

So she, through hunger after fellowship, 455 

May well have learned, though late, to play the scribe : 

As indeed, there 's one letter on the list 

Explicitly declares did happen here. 

" You thought my letters could be none of mine," 

She tells her parents — "mine, who wanted skill; 460 

But now I have the skill, and write, you see ! '' 

She needed write love-letters, so she learned. 

" Xei^atas artifcx seqiii I'oces ■' ^ — though 

Tiiis letter nowise 'scapes the common lot, 

Hut lies i' the condemnation of the rest, 465 

Found by the husband's self who forged them all. 

Yet, for the sacredness of argument. 

For this once an exemption shall it plead — 

Anything, anything to let the wheels 

Of argument run glibly to their goal! 470 

Concede she wrote (which were preposterous) 

This and the other epistle, — what of it? 

Where does the figment touch her candid fame ? 

Being in peril of her life — " my life. 

Not an hour's purchase," as the letter runs, — 4715 

And having but one stay in this extreme, / 

Out of the wide world but a single friend — | 

What could she other than resort to him, \ 

And how with any hope resort but thus? 

Shall modesty dare bid a stranger brave 480 

Danger, disgrace, nay death in her behalf — 

Think to entice the sternness of the steel 

Yet spare love's loadstone moving manly mind? 

— IVlost of all, when such mind is hampered so 

By growth of circumstance athwart the life 485 

O' the natural man, that decency forbids 

He stoop and take the common privilege, 

Sav frank " I love," as all the vulgar do. 

A man is wedded to philosophy. 

Married to statesmanship ; a man is old : 490 

A man is fettered by the foolishness 

He took for wisdom and talked ten years since ; 

A man is, like our friend the Canon here, 

A priest, and wicked if he break his vow : 

Shall he dare love, who may be Pope one day? 495 

Despite the coil of such encumbrance here, 

Suppose this man could love, unhappily. 

And would love, dared he only let love show! 

In case the woman of his love, speaks first. 

From what embarrassment she sets him free! 500 

' Negatas arti/ex segui voces : " s!;ilful at speaking the words denied." 



334 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

" 'T is I who break reserve, begin appeal, 

Confess that, whether you love me or no, 

I love you ! " What an ease to dignity, 

What help of pride from the hard high-backed chair 

Down to the carpet where the kittens bask, 505 

All under the pretence of gratitude! 

From all which, I deduce — the lady here 

Was bound to proffer nothing short of love 

To the priest whose service was to save her. What? 

Shall she propose him lucre, dust o' the mine, 510 

Rubbish o' the rock, some diamond, muckworms prize, 

Some pearl secreted by a sickly fish? 

Scarcely! She caters for a generous taste. 

'T is love shall beckon, beauty bid to breast, 

Till all the Samson sink into the snare! ^ 515 

Because, permit the end — permit therewith 

Means to the end! 

How say you, good my lords? 
I hope you heard my adversary ring 
The changes on this precept : now, let me 
Reverse the peal! (2iiia dato licitofine., 520 

Ad ilium asseqjiendum orditiata 
Non sunt daiitiianda media, — licit end 
Enough was found in mere escape from death, 
To legalize our means illicit else 

Of feigned love, false allurement, fancied fact. 525 

Thus Venus losing Cupid on a day, 
(See that Idylliuin MoscJd'^^ seeking help. 
In the anxiety of motherhood, 
Allowably promised " Who shall bring report 
Where he is wandered to, my winged babe, 530 

I give him for reward a nectared kiss ; 
But who brings safely back the truant's self. 
His be a super-sweet makes kiss seem cold!" 
Are not these things writ for example-sake? 

To such permitted motive, then, refer 535 

All those professions, else were hard explain, 

Of hope, fear, jealousy, and the rest of love! 

He is Myrtillus, Amaryllis '^ she, 

She burns, he freezes, — all a mere device 

' Samson sink into the sjiare : Judges but if thou bringest him, not the bare kiss, 

xvi. but yet more shall thou win.' " 

^ Idyllium Moschi : Idyll I. of Moschus. ^ Myrtillus^ Amaryllis : names com- 

" Cypris, raising the hue and cry for Love, monly given to lovers in pastoral verse, 
her child ... ' His prize is the kiss of Cypris, 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHAXXES-BAPTISTA BOTriXIUS. 335 

To catch and keep the man, may save her life, 540 

Whom otherwise nor catches she nor keeps! 

Worst, once, turns best now : in all faith, she feigns : 

Feigning, — the liker innocence to guilt. 

The truer to the life in what she feigns! 

How if Ulysses, — when, for puljlic good 545 

He sunk particular qualms and played the spy, ^ 

Entered Troy"s hostile gate in beggar's garb — 

How if he first had boggled at this clout. 

Grown dainty o'er that clack-dish ? Grime is grace 

To whoso gropes amid the dung for gold. 550 

Hence, beyond promises, we praise each proof 

That promise was not simply made to break, 

Mere moonshine-structure meant to fade at dawn : 

We praise, as consequent and requisite, 

What, enemies allege, were more tlian words, 555 

Deeds — meetings at the window, twilight-trysts, 

Nocturnal entertainments in the dim 

Old labyrinthine palace; lies, we know — 

Inventions we, long since, turned inside out. 

Must such external semblance of intrigue Sdb 

Demonstrate tliat intrigue there lurks perdue.'' 

Does ever)' hazel-sheath disclose a nut ? 

He were a Molinist who dared maintain 

That midnight meetings in a screened alcove 

Must argue folly in a matron — since 565 

So would he bring a slur on Judith's self, 

Commended beyond women, that she lured 

The lustful to destruction through his lust. 

Pompilia took not Judith's liberty. 

No faulchion find you in her hand to smite, 57b 

No damsel to convey in dish the head 

Of Holophernes,- — style the Canon so — 

Or is it the Count? If I entangle me 

W^ith my similitudes, — if wax wings melt. 

And earthward down I drop, not mine the fault : 575 

Blame your l^encficence, O Court, O sun. 

Whereof the beamy smile affects my flight I 

What matter, so Pompilia's fame revive 

r the warmth that proves the bane of Icarus? ■'' 

1 Ulysses . . .played the spy: " Odys- warning him not to fly too near the sun; but 
sey," iv. 316. Icarus, touched with a desire to reach heaven, 

2 Judith and Holophernes : Apocrypha, melted in the heat of tl)c sun the wax that 
" Judith," xiii. fastened his wings and fell into the waters 

3 IVarmth . . . the bane 0/ Icarus : Dae- of the Icarian Sea (Ovid, "Metamorphoses," 
dalus turned his thoughts to arts unknown, viii. 3). 

and made himself and his son Icarus wings. 



336 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Yea, we have shown it lawful, necessary 580 

Pompilia leave her husband, seek the house 

O' the parents : and because 'twixt home and home 

Lies a long road with many a danger rife. 

Lions by the way and serpents in the path. 

To rob and ravish, — much behoves she keep 585 

Each shadow of suspicion from fair fame, 

For her own sake much, but for his sake more, 

The ingrate husband's. Evidence shall be. 

Plain witness to the world how white she walks 

r the mire she wanders through ere Rome she reach. 590 

And who so proper witness as a priest ? 

Gainsay ye? Let me hear who dares gainsay! 

I hope we still can punish heretics! 

" Give me the man," I say with him of Gath,^ 

"That we may fight together!" None, 1 think: 595 

The priest is granted me. 

Then, if a priest, 
One juvenile and potent : else, mayhap, 
That dragon, our Saint George would slay, slays him. 
> And should fair face accompany strong hand, 

The more complete equipment : nothing mars 600 

Work, else praiseworthy, like a bodily tiaw 

r the worker: as 'tis said Saint Paul himself 

Deplored the check o' the puny presence,- still 

Cheating his fulmination of its flash. 

Albeit the bolt therein went true to oak. 605 

Therefore the agent, as prescribed, she takes, — 

Both juvenile and potent, handsome too, — 

In all obedience : " good," you grant again. 

Do you? I would you were the husband, lords! 

How prompt and facile might departure be! 610 

How boldly would Pompilia and the priest 

March out of door, spread flag at beat of drum, 

But that inapprehensive Guido grants 

Neither premiss nor yet conclusion here. 

And, purblind, dreads a bear in every bush! 615 

For his own quietude and comfort, then, 

Means must be found for flight in masquerade 

At hour when all things sleep. — " Save jealousy! " 

Right, Judges! Therefore shall the lady's wit 

Supply the boon thwart nature baulks him of, 620 

And do him service with the potent drug 

1 ll'ith him 0/ Gath : Goliath (i Samuel inthtans x. lo. In the Apocryphal Gospels, 
xvii. 8). also, Paul is described as little. See " Acts 

^ St. Paul . . . puny presence : 2 Cor- of Paul and Thecla." 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHAiV.VES-n.lPT/STA BOTT/X/LS. 337 

(Helen's nepenthe,^ as my lords opine) 

Which respites blessedly each fretted nerve 

O' the much-enduring man : accordingly, 

There lies he, duly dosed and sound asleep, 625 

Relieved of woes or real or raved about. 

While soft siie leaves his side, he shall not wake : 

Nor stop who steals away to join her friend. 

Nor do him mischief should he catch that friend 

Intent on more than friendly office, — nay, 630 

Nor get himself raw head and bones laid bare 

In payment of his apparition! 

Thus 
Would I defend the step, — were the thing true 
Which is a fable, — see my former speech, — 
That Guido slept (who never slept a wink) 635 

Through treachery, an opiate from his wife, 
Wlio not so much as knew what opiates mean. 
Now she may start : or hist, — a stoppage still ! 
A journey is an enterprise of cost! 

As in campaigns, we fight but others pay, 640 

Suis expensis, tie mo j/tilitat.'- 
'T is Guido's self we guard from accident. 
Ensuring safety to Pompilia, versed 
Nowise in misadventures by the way, 

Hard riding and rougli quarters, the rude fare, 645 

The unready liost. What magic mitigates 
Each plague of travel to the unpractised wife ? 
Money, sweet Sirs! And were the fiction fact 
She helped herself thereto with liberal hand 
From out her husband's store, — what fitter us? 650 

Was ever husband's money destined to? 
With bag and baggage thus did Dido ^ once 
Decamp, — for more authority, a queen! 

So is she fairly on her route at last. 

Prepared for either fortune : nay and if 655 

The priest, now all a-glow with enterprise. 

Cool somewhat presently wlien fades the flush 

O" the first adventure, clouded o'er belike 

By doubts, misgivings how the day may die. 

Though born with such auroral brilliance, — if 660 

^Nepenthe : a drug given to Helen by ^ Dido : daughter of the King of Tyre, 

the Egyptian Polydamna, bringing quick for- who, when her husband was murdered by her 

getfulness of life's evils (Homer, " Odyssey," uncle for the sake of his riches, set sail, seek- 

iv. 285. ing a new kingdom and carrying away the 

' Suis expensisy nemo ntiliiat : " no one coveted riches in order to throw them in 

goeth a warfare at his own cost." the sea. 
Z 



338 THE R/iYG AND THE BOOK. 

The brow seem over-pensive and the lip 

'Gin lag and lose the prattle lightsome late, — 

Vanquished by tedium of a prolonged jaunt 

In a close carriage o'er a jolting road, 

With only one young female substitute 665 

For seventeen other Canons of ripe age 

Were wont to keep him company in church, — 

Shall not Pompilia haste to dissipate 

The silent cloud that, gathering, bodes her bale? — 

Prop the irresoluteness may portend 670 

Suspension of the project, check the flight, 

Bring ruin on them both ? Use every means. 

Since means to the end are lawful! What i' the way 

Of wile should have allowance like a kiss 

Sagely and sisterly administered, 675 

Sororia saltern osciila ? ^ We find 

Such was the remedy her wit applied 

To each incipient scruple of the priest, 

If we believe, — as, while my wit is mine 

1 cannot, — what the driver testifies, 680 

Borsi, called Venerino, the mere tool 

Of Guido and his friend the Governor, — 

Avowal I proved wrung from out the wretch, 

After long rotting in imprisonment. 

As price of liberty and favor : long 685 

They tempted, he at last succumbed, and lo 

Counted them out full tale each kiss and more, 

" The journey being one long embrace," quoth he. 

Still, though we should believe the driver's lie. 

Nor even admit as probable excuse, 690 

Right reading of the riddle. — as I urged 

In my first argument, with fruit perhaps — 

That what the owl-like eyes (at back of head!) 

O' the driver, drowsed by driving night and day, 

Supposed a vulgar interchange of lips, 695 

This was but innocent jog of head 'gainst head, 

Cheek meeting jowl as apple may touch pear 

From branch and branch contiguous in the wind. 

When Autumn blusters and the orchard rocks : — 

That rapid run and the rough road were cause 700 

O' the casual ambiguity, no harm 

r the world to eyes awake and penetrative. 

Say. — not to grasp a truth I can release 

And safely fight without, yet conquer still, — 

Say, she kissed him, say, he kissed her again! 705 

Such osculation was a potent means, 

1 Sororia saltern oscula : " sisterly kisses, anyhow." 



JURIS DOCTOR JOIIAXXES-BAPTISTA BOTTIXIUS. 339 

A verv efficacious help, no doubt : 

Such with a third part of her nectar did 

\'onus imbue : why should Ponipilia fling 

The poefs declaration in his teeth? — 710 

Pause to employ what, — since it had success, 

And kept the priest her servant to the end, — 

We must presume of energy enough. 

No whit superfluous, so permissible? 

The goal is gained : day, night and yet a day 715 

Have run their round : a long and devious road 

Is traversed, — many manners, various men 

Passed in view, what cities did they see, 

What hamlets mark, what profitable food 

For after-meditation cull and store! 720 

Till Rome, that Rome whereof— this voice 

Would it might make our Molinists observe. 

That she is built upon a rock nor shall 

Their powers prevail against her! — Rome, I say. 

Is all but reached ; one stage more and they stop 725 

Saved : pluck up heart, ye pair, and forward, then! 

Ah, Nature — baffled she recurs, alas! 

Nature imperiously exacts her due. 

Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak : 

Pompilia needs must acquiesce and swoon, 730 

Give hopes alike and fears a breathing-while. 

The innocent sleep soundly : sound she sleeps, 

So let her slumber, then, unguarded save 

By her own chastity, a triple mail. 

And his good hand whose stalwart arms have borne 735 

The sweet and senseless burthen like a babe 

From coach to couch, — the serviceable strength! 

Nay, what and if he gazed rewardedly 

On the pale beauty prisoned in embrace. 

Stooped over, stole a balmy breath perhaps 740 

For more assurance sleep was not decease — 

" Ut vidi^'' "how 1 saw!" succeeded by 

" Ut perii^' " how I sudden lost my brains! " 

— What harm ensued to her unconscious quite? 

For, curiosity — how natural ! 745 

Importunateness — what a privilege 

In the ardent sex! And why curb ardor here? 

How can the priest but pity whom he saved? 

And pity is so near to love, and love 

So neighborly to all unreasonableness! 75° 

As to love's object, whether love were sage 

Or foolish, could Pompilia know or care, 



340 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Being still sound asleep, as I premised? 

Thus the philosopher absorbed by thought, 

Even Archimedes,^ busy o'er a book 755 

The while besiegers sacked his Syracuse, 

Was ignorant of the imminence o' the point 

O' the sword till it surprised him : let it stab, 

And never knew himself was dead at all. 

So sleep thou oix, secure whatever betide! 7^ 

For thou, too, hast thy problem hard to solve — 

How so much beauty is compatible 

With so much innocence! 

Fit place, methinks, 
While in this task she rosily is lost, 

To treat of and repel objection here 765 

Which, — frivolous, I grant. — my mind misgives, 
May somehow still have flitted, gadfly-like, 
And teased the Court at times — as if, all said 
And done, there seemed, the Court might nearly say, 
In a certain acceptation, somewhat more 770 

Of what may pass for insincerity, 
Falsehood, throughout the course Pompilia took, 
Than befits Christian. Pagans held, we know, 
Man always ought to aim at good and truth, 
Not always put one thing in the same words : 775 

Non idein semper dicer e scd spec tare 
Debeiiius. But the Pagan yoke was light ; 
" Lie not at all," the exacter precept bids : 
Each least lie breaks the law, — is sin, we hold. 
I humble me, but venture to submit — ■ 780 

What prevents sin, itself is sinless, sure : 
And sin, which hinders sin of deeper dye, 
Softens itself away by contrast so. 
Conceive me! Little sin. by none at all. 

Were properly condemned for great : but great^ 785 

By greater, dwindles into small again. 
Now, what is greatest sin of womanhood? 
That which unwomans it, abolishes 
The nature of the woman, — impudence. 

Who contradicts me here? Concede me, then, 790 

Whatever friendly fault may interpose 
To save the sex from self-abolishment 
Is three-parts on the way to virtue's rank! 
And, what is taxed here as duplicity, 

Feint, wile and trick, — admitted for the nonce, — 795 

What worse do one and all than interpose, 

1 Archimedes : the Greek mathematician killed while so absorbed in a problem that he 
and inventor (287-212 B.C.) said to have been did not know Syracuse was sacked. 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAFTISTA IJOTTiN/rS. 341 

Hold, as it were, a deprecating hand, 

Statuesquely, in the Medicean mode,^ 

Before some shame whicli modesty would veil ? 

Who blames the gesture prettily perverse? 800 

Thus. — lest ye miss a point illustrative, — 

Admit the husband's calumny — allow 

That the wife, having penned the epistle fraught 

With horrors, charge on charge of crime she heaped 

O' the head of Pietro and Violante — (still 805 

Presumed her parents) — having despatched the same 

To their arch-enemy Paolo, through free choice 

And no sort of compulsion in the world — 

Put case she next discards simplicity 

For craft, denies the voluntary act, 810 

Declares herself a passive instrument 

r the husband's hands ; that, duped by knavery, 

She traced the characters she could not write. 

And took on trust the unread sense which, read, 

And recognized were to be spurned at once : 815 

Allow this calumny, I reiterate! 

Who is so dull as wonder at the pose 

Of our Pompilia in the circumstance ? 

Who sees not that the too-ingenuous soul, 

Repugnant even at a duty done 820 

Which brought beneath too scrutinizing glare 

The misdemeanors, — buried in the dark, — 

Of the authors of her being, as believed. — 

Stung to the quick at her impulsive deed, 

And willing to repair what harm it worked, 825 

She — wise in this beyond what Nero proved. 

Who when folk urged the candid juvenile 

To sign the warrant, doom the guilty dead, 

"Would I had never learned to write." quoth he! 

— Pompilia rose above the Roman, cried 830 

"To read or write 1 never learned at all! " 

O splendidly mendacious! 

But time fleets : 
Let us not linger : hurry to the end. 
Since flight does end and that disastrously. 
Beware ye blame desert for unsuccess, 835 

Disparage each expedient else to praise. 
Call failure folly! Man's best effort fails. 
After ten years' resistance Troy succumbed : 
Could valor save a town, Troy still had stood. 
Pompilia came off" halting in no point 840 

' In the Medicean mode : i.e. like the statue known as the Venus de' Medici. 



342 THE RhYG AND THE BOOK. 

Of courage, conduct, her long journey through : 

But nature sank exhausted at the close, 

And as I said, she swooned and slept all night. 

Morn breaks and brings the husband : we assist 

At the spectacle. Discovery succeeds. 845 

Ha, how is this? What moonstruck rage is here? 

Though we confess to partial frailty now, 

To error in a woman and a wife. 

Is 't by the rough way she shall be reclaimed? 

Who bursts upon her chambered privacy? 850 

What crowd profanes tlie chaste cubicitliiDi ? 1 

What outcries and lewd laughter, scurril gibe 

And ribald jest to scare the ministrant 

Good angels that commerce with souls in sleep? 

Why, had the worst crowned Guido to his wish, 855 

Confirmed his most irrational surmise. 

Yet there be bounds to man's emotion, checks 

To an immoderate astonishment. 

'T is decent horror, regulated wrath. 

Befit our dispensation : have we back 860 

The old Pagan license? Shall a Vulcan clap 

His net o" the sudden and expose the pair 

To the unquenchable vmiversal mirth ? 

A feat, antiquity saw scandal in 

So clearly, that the nauseous tale thereof — 865 

Demodocus - his nugatory song — 

Hath ever been concluded modern stuff 

Impossible to the mouth of the grave Muse, 

So, foisted into that Eighth Odyssey 

By some impertinent pickthank. O thou fool, 870 

Count Guido Franceschini, what didst gain 

By publishing thy secret to the world? 

Were all the precepts of the wise a waste — 

Bred in thee not one touch of reverence? 

Admit thy wife — admonish we the fool, — 875 

Were falseness' self, why chronicle thy shame? 

Much rather should thv teeth bite out thy tongue. 

Dumb lip consort with desecrated brow. 

Silence become historiographer. 

And thou — thine own Cornelius Tacitus!^ 880 

But virtue, barred, still leaps the barrier, lords! 

— Still, moon-like, penetrates the encroaching mist 

And bursts, all broad and bare, on night, ye know ! 

1 Cubiculum : sleeping-room. ^ Cornelius Tacitus : the Roman his- 

2 /?f»Z(j(f(7c?<i.- the minstrel of the Phaeacian torian (54-110). 
king, whose song, given in the " Odyssey," 
viii. 330-450, relates the story of Vulcan 
referred to here. 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-B.irriSTA BOTTIN'IUS. 343 

Surprised, then, in the garb of truth, perhaps, 

Pompilia, thus opposed, breaks obstacle, 885 

Springs to her feet, and stands Thalassian-pure,^ 

Confronts the foe. — nay, catches at his sword 

And tries to ivill tlie intruder, he complains. 

Why, so she gave her lord his lesson back. 

Crowned him, this time, the virtuous woman's way, 890 

With an exact obedience ; he brought sword. 

She drew the same, since swords are meant to draw. 

Tell not me 'tis sharp play with tools on edge! 

It was the husband chose the weapon here 

Why did not he inaugurate the game 895 

With some gentility of apophthegm 

Still pregnant on the philosophic page. 

Some captivating cadence still a-lisp 

O' the poet's lyre? Such spells subdue the surge, 

Make tame the tempest, much more mitigate 900 

The passions of the mind, and probably 

Had moved Pompilia to a smiling blush. 

No. he must needs prefer the argument 

O' the blow : and she obeyed, in duty bound. 

Returned him buffet ratiocinative — 905 

Ay, in the reasoner's own interest. 

For wife must follow whither husband leads, 

Vindicate honor as himself prescribes. 

Save him the very way himself bids save! 

No question but who jumps into a quag 910 

Should stretch forth hand and pray us "Pull me out 

By the hand! '^ such were the customary cry : 

But Guido pleased to bid " Leave hand alone! 

Join both feet, rather, jump upon my head : 

I extricate myself by the rebound!" 915 

And dutifully as enjoined she jumped — 

Drew his own sword and menaced his own life. 

Anything to content a wilful spouse. 

And so he was contented — one must do 

Justice to the expedient which succeeds, 92c 

Strange as it seem : at flourish of the blade. 

The crowd drew back, stood breathless and abashed, 

Then murmured " This should be no wanton wife, 

No conscience-stricken sinner, caught i' the act, 

* Thalassian-pure : probably refers to of superior beauty at the rape of the Sabines 

the congratulatory exclamation addressed to and some men of higher rank would have 

brides, " Thallasius," or " Talasius," for the intervened, they cried that they were reserv- 

origin of which Plutarch gives various ac- ing her for Thalassius, who was so brave a 

counts in his life of Romulus, one being that young man that it was thought fit he should 

when some slaves were carrying off a damsel have the choicest prize. 



344 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And patiently awaiting our first stone : 925 

But a poor hard-pressed all-bewildered thing, 

Has rushed so far, misguidedly perhaps, 

Meaning no more harm than a frightened sheep. 

She sought for aid ; and if she made mistake 

r the man could aid most, why — so mortals do : 930 

Even the blessed Magdalen mistook ^ 

Far less forgiveably : consult the place — 

Supposing him to be the gardener, 

' Sir,' said she, and so following." Why more words? 

Forthwith the wife is pronounced innocent : 935 

What would the husband more than gain his cause. 

And find that honor flash in the world's eye ; 

His apprehension was lest soil had smirched? 

So, happily the adventure comes to close 

Whereon my fat opponent grounds his charge 940 

Preposterous : at mid-day he groans " how dark! " 

Listen to me, thou Archangelic swine! 

Where is the ambiguity to blame. 

The flaw to find in our Pompilia? Safe 

She stands, see! Does thy comment follow quick 945 

" Safe, inasmuch as at the end proposed ; 

But thither she picked way by devious path — 

Stands dirtied, no dubiety at all! 

I recognize success, yet, all the same. 

Importunately will suggestion prompt — 950 

Better Pompilia gained the right to boast 

'No devious path, no doubtful patch was mine, 

I saved my head nor sacrificed my foot.' 

Why, being in a peril, show mistrust 

Of the angels set to guard the innocent? 955 

Why rather hold by obvious vulgar help 

Of stratagem and subterfuge, excused 

Somewhat, but still no less a foil, a fault, 

Since low with high, and good with bad is linked? 

Methinks I view some ancient bas-relief. 960 

There stands Hesione^ thmst out by Troy, 

Her father's hand has chained her to a crag, 

Her mother's from the virgin plucked the vest, 

At a safe distance both distressful watch, 

While near and nearer comes the snorting ore. 965 

I look that, white and perfect to the end. 

She wait till Jove despatch some demigod ; 

' Magdalen tnistook : St. John xx. 15. caused by her father's breach of faith, and 

2 Hesione : daughter of Laomedon, king saved by Hercules, son of Alcmena. 
of Troy, exposed on a rock to avert a plague 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAPTISTA BOTTINIUS. 345 

Not that, — impatient of celestial club 

Alcmena's son^ should brandish at the beast, — 

She daub, disguise her dainty limbs with pitch, 970 

And so elude the purblind monster! Ay, 

The trick succeeds, but "t is an ugly trick, 

Where needs have been no trick!" 

My answer ? Faugh ; 
Nimis incongruel Too absurdly put! 

Sententiam ego tctieo contrariavi, 975 

Trick, I maintain, had no alternative. 
The heavens were bound with brass. — Jove far at feast 
(No feast like that thou didst not ask me to, 
Arcangeli, — I heard of thy regale!) 

With the unblamed /Ethiop.- — Hercules spun wool 980 

r the lap of Omphale.^ while Virtue shrieked — 
The brute came paddling all the faster. You 
Of Troy, who stood at distance, where 's the aid 
You offered in the extremity? Most and least 
Gentle and simple, here the Governor, 985 

There the Archbishop, everywhere the friends, 
Shook heads and waited for a miracle. 
Or went their way, left Virtue to her fate. 
Just this one rougli and ready man leapt forth! 
— Was found, sole anti-Fabius ■* (dare I say) 990 

Who restored things, with no delay at all, 
(2ui hand cimciando rem restitmt ! He, 
He only, Caponsacchi 'mid a crowd. 
Caught Virtue up, carried Pompilia off 

Through gaping impotence of sympathy 995 

In ranged Arezzo : what you take for pitch. 
Is nothing worse, belike, than black and blue. 
Mere evanescent proof that hardy hands 
Did yeoman's service, cared not where the gripe 
Was more than duly energetic : bruised, 1000 

She smarts a little, but her bones are saved 
A fracture, and her skin will soon show sleek. 
How it disgusts when weakness, false-refined. 
Censures the honest rude effective strength, — 
When sickly dreamers of the impossible 1005 

' Alcmena's son : Hercules. content to sit with her and spin wool while 
' IVith the unblamed ethiop : as de- his great tasks were neglected. 
scribed by Homer (" Iliad," i. 423), Zeus had ■* Anti-Fabius : the antithesis of Q. Fa- 
gone to partake of the twelve-day feast of the bius Maximus, qui cunctando restituit rem, 
Ethiopians. who, in the second Punic war, restored the 
^ Omphale : queen of Lydia, who so fortunes of Rome by delay, i.e. by avoiding 
dominated over the great hero that he was pitched battles. 



346 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Decry plain sturdiness which does the feat 
With eyes wide open! 

Did occasion serve, 
I could illustrate, if my lords allow ; 
Qxiid vetat, what forbids I aptly ask 

With Horace, that I give my anger vent, loio 

While I let breathe, no less, and recreate. 
The gravity of my Judges, by a tale? 
A case in point — what though an apologue 
Graced by tradition? — possibly a fact : 

Tradition must precede all scripture, words 1015 

Serve as our warrant ere our books can be : 
So, to tradition back we needs must go 
For any fact's authority : and this 
Hath lived so far (like jewel hid in muck) 
On page of that old lying vanity 1020 

Called " Sepher Toldoth Yeschu : " ^ God be praised, 
I read no Hebrew, — take the thing on trust : 
But I believe the writer meant no good 
(Blind as he was to truth in some respects) 
To our pestiferous and schismatic . . . well, 1025 

My lords' conjecture be the touchstone, show 
The thing for what it is! The author lacks 
Discretion, and his zeal exceeds : but zeal, — 
How rare in our degenerate day! Enough! 
Here is the story : fear not, I shall chop 1030 

And change a little, else my Jew would press 
All too unmannerly before the Court. 

It happened once, — begins this foolish Jew, 
Pretending to write Christian history, — 

That three, held greatest, best and worst of men, I035 

Peter and John and Judas, spent a day 
In toil and travel through the country-side 
On some sufficient business — I suspect, 
Suppression of some Molinism i' the bud. 

Foot-sore and hungry, dropping with fatigue, 1040 

They reached by nightfall a poor lonely grange. 
Hostel or inn : so, knocked and entered there. 
" Your pleasure, great ones ? " — " Shelter, rest and food! " 
For shelter, there was one bare room above ; 
For rest therein, three beds of bundled straw : I045 

1 For food, one wretched starveling fowl, no more — 

Meat for one mouth, but mockery for three. 
" You have my utmost." How should supper serve? 
Peter broke silence : "To the spit with fowl! 
And while 'tis cooking, sleep! — since beds there be. 1050 
And, so far, satisfaction of a want. 

1 Sepher Toldoth Yeschu : meaning the book of the generation of Jesus, an apocryphal 
writing concerning events of the New Testament. As Genesis v. i begins, " The book 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANXES-BAPTISTA BOTTLXIUS. 347 

Sleep we an hour, awake at supper-time, 

Then each of us narrate the dream he had, 

And he whose dream shall prove the iiappiest, point 

The clearliest out the dreamer as ordained 1055 

Beyond his fellows to receive the fowl, 

Him let our shares be cheerful tribute to. 

His the entire meal, may it do him good!" 

Who could dispute so plain a consequence? 

So said, so done : each hurried to his straw, 1060 

Slept his hour's sleep and dreamed his dream, and woke. 

'' I,"'' commenced Jolin, •• dreamed that I gained the prize 

We all aspire to : the proud place was mine, 

Throughout the earth and to the end of time 

I was the Loved Disciple: mine the meal!" 1065 

" But I," proceeded Peter, "dreamed, a word 

Gave me the headship of our company. 

Made me the VMcar and Vice-gerent, gave 

The keys of heaven and hell into my hand. 

And o'er the earth, dominion : mine the nual! " 1070 

■'While I," submitted in soft under-tone 

The Iscariot — sense of his unworthiness 

Turning each eye up to the inmost white — 

With long-drawn sigh, yet letting both lips smack, 

•• I have had just the pitifuUest dream 1075 

That ever proved man meanest of his mates. 

And born foot-washer and foot-wiper, nay 

Foot-kisser to each comrade of you all! 

I dreamed I dreamed ; and in that mimic dream 

(Impalpable to dream as dream to fact) . 1080 

iMethought I meanly chose to sleep no wink 

But wait until I heard my brethren snore ; 

Then stole from couch, slipped noiseless o'er the planks, 

Slid downstairs, furtively approached the hearth. 

Found the fowl duly brown, both back and breast, 1085 

Hissing in harmony with the cricket's chirp, 

(Jrilled to a point : said no grace but fell to. 

Nor finished till the skeleton lay bare. 

In penitence for which ignoble dream, 

Lo, I renounce my portion cheerfully! 1090 

Fie on the flesh — be mine the ethereal gust, 

And yours the sublunary sustenance! 

See that whate'er be left ye give the poor! " 

Down the two scuttled, one on other's heel. 

Stung by a fell surmise ; and found, alack, 1095 

A goodly savor, both the drumstick bones. 

And that which henceforth took the appropriate name 

O' the Merry-thought, in memorv of the fact 

That to keep wide awake is man's best dream. 

of the generation of Adam," so Matthew i. i begins, "The book of the generation of 
Jesus." 



348 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

So, — as was said once of Thucydides iioo 

And his sole joke,^ " The Hon, lo, hath laughed!" — 

Just so, the Governor and all that 's great 

r the city, never meant that Innocence 

Should quite starve while Authority sat at meat ; 

They meant to fling a bone at banquet's end : 1105 

Wished well to our Pompilia — in their dreams, 

Nor bore the secular sword in vain — asleep. 

Just so the Archbishop and all good like him 

Went to bed meaning to pour oil and wine 

r the wounds of her, next day, — but long ere day, mo 

They had burned the one and drunk the other, while 

Just so, again, contrariwise, the priest 

Sustained poor Nature in extremity 

By stuffing barley-bread into her mouth, 

Saving Pompilia (grant the parallel) II 15 

By the plain homely and straightforward way 

Taught him by common sense. Let others shriek 

" Oh what refined expedients did we dream 

Proved us the only fit to help the fair! " 

He cried " A carriage waits, jump in with me! " 1 120 

And now, this application pardoned, lords, — 

This recreative pause and breathing-while, — 

Back to beseemingness and gravity! 

For Law steps in : Guido appeals to Law, 

Demands she arbitrate, — does well for once. 11 25 

O Law, of thee how neatly was it siid 

By that old Sophocles,'- thou hast thy seat 

r the very breast of Jove, no meanlier throned! 

Here is a piece of work now, hitherto 

Begun and carried on, concluded near, 1 130 

Without an eye-glance cast thy sceptre's way ; 

And, lo the stumbling and discomfiture! 

Well may you call them '' lawless " means, men take 

To extricate themselves through mother-wit 

When tangled haply in the toils of life! 1 135 

Guido would try conclusions with his foe, 

Whoe'er the foe was and whate'er the offence ; 

He would recover certain dowry-dues ; 

Instead of asking Law to lend a hand. 

What pother of sword drawn and pistol cocked, 1140 

What peddling with forged letters and paid spies, 

Politic circumvention! — all to end 

1 Thucydides . . . sole joke : the Scho- -Sophocles: " CEdipus at Colonus," 1382. 

Hast, commenting on a lighter passage near " Justice, declared from of old, sits with Zeus 
the end of Book I. of Thucydides' " History in the might of the eternal laws." 
of the Peloponnesian War," observes that 
" here the lion laughs." 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAPTISTA BOTTINIUS. 349 

As it began — by loss of the fooFs head, 

First in a figure, presently in a fact. 

It is a lesson to mankind at large. 1 145 

How other were the end, would men be sage 

And bear confidingly each quarrel straight, 

O Law, to thy recipient mother-knees! 

How would the children light come and prompt go, 

This with a red-cheeked apple for reward, 1 150 

The other, peradventure red-cheeked too 

r the rear, by taste of birch for punishment. 

No foolish brawling murder any more! 

Peace for the household, practice for the Fisc, 

And plenty for the exchequer of my lords! II55 

Too much to hope, in this world : in the next. 

Who knows? Since, why should sit the Twelve enthroned 

To judge the tribes, unless the tribes be judged? 

And \ is impossible but offences come : 

So, all 's one lawsuit, all one long leet-day! ^ 1160 

Forgive me this digression — that I stand 
Entranced awhile at Law's first beam, outbreak 
O' the business, when the Count's good angel bade 
'• Put up thy sword, born enemy to the ear. 
And let Law listen to thy difterence! " 1 165 

And Law does listen and compose the strife, 
Settle the suit, how wisely and how well! 
On our Pompilia, faultless to a fault, 
Law bends a brow maternally severe, 

Implies the worth of perfect chastity, I170 

By fancying the flaw she cannot find. 
Superfluous sifting snow, nor helps nor harms : 
'T is safe to censure levity in youth. 
Tax womanhood with indiscretion, sure! 
Since toys, permissible to-day, become . 1175 

Follies to-morrow : prattle shocks in church : 
And that curt skirt which lets a maiden skip, 
The matron changes for a trailing robe. 
Mothers may aim a blow with half-shut eyes 
Nodding above their s])indles by the fire, ri8o 

And chance to hit some hidden fault, else safe. 
Just so. Law hazarded a punishment — 
If applicable to the circumstance. 
Why, well! if not so apposite, well too. 

" Quit the gay range o' the world," I hear her cry, 1185 

" Enter, in lieu, the penitential pound : „. 

Exchange the gauds of pomp for ashes, dust! '^ ~ 
« 

' Leet-day : day on which the court sits. 



350 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Leave each mollitious haunt of luxury! 
The golden-garnished silken-couched alcove, 
The many-columned terrace that so tempts 1190 

■ Feminine soul put foot forth, extend ear 
To fluttering joy of lover's serenade, — 
Leave these for cellular seclusion! mask 
And dance no more, but fast and pray! avaunt — 
Be burned, thy wicked townsman's sonnet-book! 1195 

Welcome, mild hymnal by . . . some better scribe! 
For the warm arms were wont enfold thy flesh, 
Let wire-shirt plough and whipcord discipline! " 
If such an exhortation proved, perchance. 

Inapplicable, words bestowed in waste, 1200 

What harm, since Law has store, can spend nor miss? 

And so, our paragon submits herself. 

Goes at command into the holy house. 

And, also at command, comes out again : 

For, could the etTect of such obedience prove 1205 

Too certam, too immediate? Being healed, 

Go blaze abroad the matter, blessed one! 

Art thou sound forthwith ? Speedily vacate 

The step by pool-side, leave Bethesda free 

To patients plentifully posted round, 12 10 

Since the whole need not the physician! Brief, 

She may betake her to her parents' place. 

Welcome her, father, with wide arms once more, 

Motion her, mother, to thy breast again! 

For why? Since Law relinquishes the charge, 121 5 

Grants to your dwelling-place a prison's style, 

Rejoice you with Pompilia! golden days, 

Redeiint Saturiiia regna}- Six weeks slip, 

And she is domiciled in house and home 

As though she thence had never budged at all. 1220 

And thither let the husband, — joyous, ay. 

But contrite also — quick betake himself. 

Proud that his dove which lay among the pots 

Hath mued'^ those dingy feathers, — moulted now, 

Shows silver bosom clothed with yellow gold! 1225 

So shall he tempt her to the perch she fled. 

Bid to domestic bliss the truant back. 

But let him not delay! Time fleets how fast. 

And opportunity, the irrevocable, 

Once flown will flout him! Is the furrow traced? 1230 

' Redeunt Saiurnia rcgna : Virgil's " Ec- ^ Mued : moulted, 

logues " again, iv. 5, already referred to, 285. 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHAXXES-BAPTISTA BOTTINIUS. 351 

If field with corn ye fail preoccupy, 

Darnel for wheat and thistle-beards for grain, 

Infclix loliion, car dims horridus, 

Will grow apace in combination prompt, 

Defraud the husbandman of his desire. 1235 

Already — hist — what murmurs 'monish now 

The laggard? — doubtful, nay, fantastic bruit 

Of such an apparition, such return 

I>itcrduin, to anticipate the spouse, 

Of Caponsacchi's very self ! 'T is said, 1240 

Wiien nights are lone and company is rare. 

His visitations brighten winter up. 

If so they did — which nowise I believe — 

(How can I ? — proof abounding that the priest. 

Once fairly at his relegation-place, 1245 

Never once left it) still, admit he stole 

A midnight march, would fain see friend again, 

Find matter for instruction in the past. 

Renew the old adventure in such chat 

As cheers a fireside! He was lonely too, 1250 

He, too. must need his recreative hour. 

Shall it amaze the philosophic mind 

If he, long wont the empurpled cup to quaflf, 

Have feminine society at will. 

Being debarred abruptly from all drink 1255 

Save at the spring which Adam used for wine. 

Dreads harm to just the health he hoped to guard. 

And, trying abstinence, gains malady? 

Ask Tozzi, now physician to the Pope! 

" Little by little break " — (I hear he bids 1260 

Master Arcangeli my antagonist, 

Who loves good cheer, and may indulge too much : 

So I explain the logic of the plea 

Wherewith he opened our proceedings late) — 

" Little by little break a habit, Don, 1265 

Become necessity to feeble flesh ! " 

And thus, nocturnal taste of intercourse 

(Which never happened, — but, suppose it did) 

May have been used to dishabituate 

By sip and sip this drainer to the dregs 1270 

O' the draught of conversation, — heady stuff. 

Brewage which, broached, it took two da\-s and nights 

To properly discuss i' the journey. Sirs! 

Such power has second nature, men call use, 

That undelightful objects get to charni 1275 

Instead of chafe : the daily colocynth ^ 

1 Colocynth : a purgative drug made from the bitter seeds of the colocynth, an Asian 
fruit. 



352 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Tickles the palate by repeated dose, 

Old sores scratch kindly, the ass makes a push 

Although the mill-yoke-wound be smarting yet, 

For mill-door bolted on a holiday : 1280 

Nor must we marvel here if impulse urge 

To talk the old story over now and then, 

The hopes and fears, the stoppage and the haste, — 

Subjects of colloquy to surfeit once. 

" Here did you bid me twine a rosy wreath! " ' 1285 

"And there you paid my lips a compliment! " 

" Here you admired the tower could be so tall!" 

" And there you likened that of Lebanon 

To the nose of the beloved!" Trifles! still, 

'■'■Forsan et hcec olim,''' ^ — such trifles serve 1290 

To make the minutes pass in winter-time. 

Husband, return then, I re-counsel thee! 

For, finally, of all glad circumstance 

Should make a prompt return imperative. 

What in the world awaits thee, dost suppose? 1295 

O' the sudden, as good gifts are wont befall. 

What is the hap of our unconscious Count? 

That which lights bonfire and sets cask a-tilt, 

Dissolves the stubborn'st heart in jollity. 

O admirable, there is born a babe, 1300 

A son, an heir, a Franceschini last 

And best o' the stock! Pompilia, thine the palm! 

Repaying incredulity with faith, 

Ungenerous thrift of each marital debt 

With bounty in profuse expenditure, 1305 

Pompilia scorns to have the old year end 

Without a present shall ring in the new — 

Bestows on her too-parsimonious lord 

An infant for the apple of his eye. 

Core of his heart, and crown completing life, 13 10 

True siitnmum bomun of the earthly lot ! 

" We," saith ingeniously the sage, " are born 

Solely that others may be born of us." 

So, father, take thy child, for thine that child. 

Oh nothing doubt! In wedlock born, law holds 131 5 

Baseness impossible : since '•'•filius est 

Quern nuptia demonstrant,^^ twits the text 

Whoever dares to doubt. 

Yet doubt he dares! 
O faith, where art thou flown from out the world? 

^ Forsan et hcecolim memitiisse iuvabit : day we shall take pleasure in recalling even 
Virgil, " ./Eneid," i. 203 — "Perchance one these experiences." 



JURIS DOCTOR JOH.lX\hS-nA/'T/STA BOTTIXIUS. 353 

Already on what an age of doubt we fall! 1320 

Instead of each disputing for the prize, 

The babe is bandied here from that to this. 

Whose the babe ? " Cnjii/n peats ? " ^ Guide's lamb ? 

" A?i MelibociV^ Nay, but of the priest! 

" Non sed ^-Egonis ! " Some one must be sire : 1325 

And who shall say, in such a puzzling strait, 

If there were not vouchsafed some miracle 

To the wife who had been harassed and abused 

More than enough by Guido's family 

For non-production of the promised fruit 1330 

Of marriage? What if Nature, I demand. 

Touched to the quick by taunts upon her sloth, 

Had roused herself, put forth recondite power. 

Bestowed this birth to vindicate her sway, 

Like the strange favor, Maro memorized 1335 

As granted Arista^us when his hive 

La) empty of the swarm ? not one more bee — 

Not one more babe to Franceschini's house! 

And lo, a new birth filled the air with joy, 

Sprung from the bowels of the generous steer, 1340 

A novel son and heir rejoiced the Count! 

Spontaneous generation, need I prove 

VVere facile feat to Nature at a pinch? 

Let whoso doubts, steep horsehair certain weeks 

In water, there will be produced a snake; 1345 

Spontaneous product of the horse, which horse 

Happens to be the representative — 

Now that I think on 't — of Arezzo's self. 

The very city our conception blessed : 

Is not a prancing horse the City-arms? 1350 

What sane eye fails to see coincidence? 

Cur ego, boast thou, my Pompilia, then, 

Desperem fieri sine conjiige 

Mater — how well the O vidian distich suits! — 

Et par ere intacto dninmodo 1355 

Casta viro? Such miracle was wrought! 

Note, further, as to mark the prodigy. 

The babe in question neither took the name 

Of Guido, from the sire presumptive, nor 

Giuseppe, from the sire potential, but 1 360 

Gaetano — last saint of our hierarchy. 

And newest namer for a thing so new! 

What other motive could have prompted choice? 

' Cujum pecus, etc. : a quotation from should be ■I'erum ; " ' Whose is this flock, 
Virgil, "Eclogues," iii. i, except that sed — Meliboeus'.'" ' Nay, iEgon's.'" 
2 A 



354 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Therefore be peace again : exult, ye hills! 

Ye vales rejoicingly break forth in song! 1365 

iHcipe par've puer} begin, small boy, 

Risu cognoscere patre7n^ with a laugh 

To recognize thy parent! Nor do thou 

Boggle, oh parent, to return the grace! 

Nee anceps hcere, pater, piiero 137° 

Cognoscendo — one may well eke out the prayer! 

In vain! The perverse Guido doubts his eyes, 

Distrusts assurance, lets the devil drive. 

Because his house is swept and garnished now, 

He, having summoned seven like himself, 1375 

Must hurry thither, knock and enter in, 

And make the last worse than the first, indeed! 

Is he content? We are. No further blame 

O' the man and murder! They were stigmatized 

Befittingly : the Court heard long ago 1380 

My mind o' the matter, which, outpouring full, 

Has long since swept like surge, i' the simile 

Of Homer, overborne both dyke and dam, 

And whelmed alike client and advocate : 

His fate is sealed, his life as good as gone, 1385 

On him I am not tempted to wast 2 word. 

Yet though my purpose holds, — which was and is 

And solely shall be to the very end. 

To draw the true effigies of a saint. 

Do justice to perfection in the sex, — 1390 

Yet let not some gross pamperer of the flesh 

And niggard in the spirit's nourishment, 

Whose feeding hath olTuscated his wit 

Rather than law, — he never had, to lose — 

Let not such advocate object to me 1395 

1 leave my proper function of attack! 

" What 's this to Bacchus ? " — (in the classic phrase, 

Well used, for once) he hiccups probably- 

O Advocate o' the Poor, thou born to make 

Their blessing void — beati pauper es ! - 1400 

By painting saintship I depicture sin : 

Beside my pearl, I prove how black thy jet. 

And, through Pompilia's virtue, Guido's crime. 

Back to her, then, — with but one beauty more, 

End we our argument, — one crowning grace 1405 

Pre-eminent 'mid agony and death. 

1 Incipe parve puer, etc. : Virgil, " Ec- the Mount, which the failure of Archangelis, 

logues," iv. 60, referred to. 285,1218. advocate of the poor, will render vain in 

- Beatipaiiperes : " Blessed are the poor," Guide's case, 
an allusion to the Beatitudes of the Sermon on 



JURIS DOCTOR JOHANNES-BAPTISTA BOTIINWS. 355 

For to the last Pompilia played her part, 

Used the right means to the permissible end. 

And wily as an eel that stirs the mud 

Thick overhead, so baffling spearman's thrust, 1410 

She, while he stabbed her, simulated death, 

Delayed, for his sake, the catastrophe. 

Obtain herself a respite, four days' grace. 

Whereby she told her story to the world. 

Enabled me to make the present speech, 141 5 

And, bj^_ajull coufession, saved hersouf. 

Yet hold, even here would malice leer its last. 

Gurgle its choked remonstrance: snake, hiss free! 

Oh, that 's the objection ? And to whom ? — not her 

But me, forsooth — as, in the very act 1420 

Of both confession and (what followed close) 

Subsequent talk, chatter and gossipry. 

Babble to sympathizing he and she 

Whoever chose besiege her dying bed, — 

As this were found at variance with my tale, 1425 

Falsitied all I have adduced for truth. 

Admitted not one peccadillo here. 

Pretended to perfection, first and last, 

O' the whole procedure — perfect in the end, 

Perfect i' the means, perfect in everything, 1430 

Leaving a lawyer nothing to excuse. 

Reason away and show his skill about ! 

— A flight, impossible to Adamic flesh, 

Just to be fancied, scarcely to be wished, 

And, anyhow, unpleadable in court! 1435 

" How reconcile," gasps Malice, " that with this?" 

Your " this," friend, is extraneous to the law. 

Comes of men's outside meddling, the unskilled 

Interposition of such fools as press 

Out of their province. Must I speak my mind? 1440 

Far better had Pompilia died o' the spot 

Than found a tongue to wag and shame the law. 

Shame most of allherself, — could friendship fail 

And advocacy lie less on the alert : 

But no, they shall protect her to the end! 1445 

Do I credit the alleged narration ? No! 

Lied our Pompilia then, to laud herself? 

Still, no ! Clear up what seems discrepancy? 

The means abound : art 's long, though time is short ; 

So, keeping me in compass, all I urge I45° 

Is — since, confession at the point of death, 

Nam in articulo mortis, with the Church 



356 THE RJXG AND THE BOOK. 

Passes for statement honest and sincere, 

Nejno presiimitiir reus esse, — then. 

If sure that all affirmed would be believed, 1455 

'T was charity, in her so circumstanced, 

To spend the last breath in one effort more 

For universal good of friend and foe : 

And, — by pretending utter innocence, 

Nay, freedom from each foible we forgive, 1460 

Re-integrate — not solely her own fame, 

But do the like kind office for the priest 

Whom telling the crude truth about might vex, 

Haply expose to peril, abbreviate 

Indeed the long career of usefulness 1465 

Presumably before him : while her lord. 

Whose fleeting life is forfeit to the law, — 

What mercy to the culprit if, by just 

The gift of such a full certificate 

Of his immitigable guiltiness, 1470 

She stifled in him the absurd conceit 

Of murder as it were a mere revenge 

— Stopped confirmation of that jealousy 

Which, did she but acknowledge the first flaw, 

The faintest foible, had emboldened him 1475 

To battle with the charge, baulk penitence. 

Bar preparation for impending fate! 

Whereas, persuade him that he slew a saint 

Who sinned not even where she may have sinned, 

You urge him all the brisklier to repent 1480 

Of most and least and aught and everything ! 

Still, if this view of mine content you not, 

Lords, nor excuse the genial falsehood here. 

We come to our Triarii,'^ last resource : 

We fall back on the inexpugnable, 1485 

Submitting, — she confessed before she talked! 

The sacrament obliterates the sin : 

What is not, — was not, therefore, in a sense. 

Let Molinists distinguish, " Souls washed white 

But red once, still show pinkish to the eye! " 1490 

We say, abolishment is nothingness. 

And nothingness has neither head nor tail, 

End nor beginning ! Better estimate 

Exorbitantly, than disparage aught 

Of the efficacity of the act, I hope ! 1495 

Sohnuitur tabulce ? - May we laugh and go? 

' Triarii : the third rank in the old forma- "^ Solvuntur tabula : from Horace, " Sat- 

tion of the Roman legion, containing the old- ires," ii. 86 — solventur risu tabula, "the 

est soldiers, and only called upon at the crisis court will break up in laughter." 
of a battle. 



JURIS DOCTOR /OHAXiVES-n APT/ST. I liOTTINIUS. 357 

Well, — not before (in filial gratitude 

To Law, who, mighty mother, waves adieu) 

We take on rs to vindicate Law's self! 

For, — yea, Si'^s, — curb the start, curtail the stare! — 1500 

Remains that we apologize for haste 

r the Law, our lady who here bristles up 

•• Hlame my procedure? Could the Court mistake? 

(Which were indeed a misery to think). 

Did not my sentence in the former stage 1505 

O' the business bear a title plain enough? 

Decretum " — I translate it word for word — 

" • Decreed : the priest, for his complicity 

r the flight and deviation of the dame, 

As well as for unlawful intercourse, 1 5 10 

Is banished three years : ' crime and penalty, 

Declared alike. If he be taxed with guilt, 

How can you call Pompilia innocent? 

If both be innocent, have I been just? " 

Gently, O mother, judge men — whose mistake 1 5 1 5 

Is in the mere misapprehensiveness! 

The Titidiis ^ a-top of your decree 

Was but to ticket there the kind of charge 

Vou in good time would arbitrate upon. 

Title is one thing, — arbitration's self, 1520 

Probatio, quite another possibly. 

Subsistit, there holds good the old response, 

Responsio traciita, we must not stick, 

Qiiod noil sit attendendiis Tituhis, 

To the Title, sed Probatio, but the Proof, 1525 

Result atis ex processit, the result 

O' the Trial, and the style of punishment, 

Et pcena per soitentiain ufiposita . 

All is tentative, till the sentence come : 

An indication of what men expect, 153° 

But nowise an assurance they shall find. 

Lords, what if we permissibly relax 

The tense bow, as the law-god Phoebus bids, 

Relieve our gravity at labor's close ? 

I traverse Rome, feel thirsty, need a draught, 1535 

Look for a wine-shop, find it by the bough 

Projecting as to say '' Here wine is sold! " 

So much I know, — " sold : " but what sort of wine? 

Strong, weak, sweet, sour, home-made or foreign drink? 

That much must I discover by myself. 1 540 

" Wine is sold," quoth the bough, " but good or bad, 

• 7'tiit/its : title. 



358 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Find, and inform us when you smack your lips!" 

Exactly so, Law hangs her title forth, 

To show she entertains you with such case 

About such crime. Come in! she poi'rs, you quaff. 1545 

You find the Priest good liquor in the main. 

But heady and provocative of brawls : 

Remand the residue to flask once more, 

Lay it low where it may deposit lees, 

r the cellar: thence produce it presently, 155° 

Three years the brighter and the better! 

Thus, 
Law's son, have I bestowed my filial help, 
And thus I end, tenax proposito ; 
Point to point as 1 purposed have I drawn 
Pompilia, and implied as terribly 1555 

Guido : so, gazing, let the world crown Law — 
Able once more, despite my impotence. 
And helped by the acumen of the Court, 
To eliminate, display, make triumph truth ! 
What other prize than truth were worth the pains? 1560 



There 's my oration — much exceeds in length 

That famed panegyric of Isocrates,i 

They say it took him fifteen years to pen. 

But all those ancients could say nothing! 

He put in just what rushed into his head : 1565 

While I shall have to prune and pare and print. 

This comes of being born in modern times 

With priests for auditory. Still, it pays. 

1 Isocraies : the Attic rhetorician and ora- Persia. Born 436, died 338 by his own hand 
tor whose " famed panegyric " was delivered after the battle of Chsronea, in despair of his 
380 B.C. to stir up the Greeks to unite against country's fate. 



THE POPE. 359 

X. 
THE POPE. 



[The final judgment being left to the Pope, his decision is against Guide. In 
this book he goes over the arguments that have led him to this decision, with the 
assurance that, should he have judged wrongly, God will accept his action be- 
cause it has been instigated by a conscientious desire to find the truth. Except in 
Pompilia, whom he finds entirely worthy of praise, and Caponsacchi, whose sin in 
breaking priestly vows he justifies, he discovers avarice on all sides as the chief 
motive of action. Guido is denounced above all, because he had had the best 
opportunities for development, and because he has not availed himself of the sev- 
eral chances of repentance offered him. Overwhelmed with the predominance of 
evil, the Pope falls into religious philosophizing, finding in the purity and love of 
Pompilia a symbol of the assurance that through love the world will be saved, and 
in doubt, the spur to greater faith. His hope is that the summary sentence he pro- 
nounces on Guido may cause repentance, but he feels he dare not die without 
doing his utmost to avenge the wrong done by this man.] 

Like to Ahasuerus,^ that shrewd prince. 

\ will begin, — as is, these seven years now, 

My daily wont, — and read a History 

(Written by one whose deft right hand was dust 

To the last digit, ages ere my birth) 5 

Of all my predecessors, Popes of Rome : 

For though mine ancient early dropped the pen, 

Yet others picked it up and wrote it dry. 

Since of the making books there is no end. 

And so I have the Papacy complete 10 

From Peter first to Alexander last ; - 

Can question each and take instruction so. 

Have I to dare? — I ask, how dared this Pope? 

To suffer? — Suchanone, how suffered he? 

Being about to judge, as now, I seek 15 

How judged once, well or ill, some other Pope ; 

Study some signal judgment that subsists 

To blaze on. or else blot, the page which seals 

The sum up of what gain or loss to God 

Came of His one more Vicar in the world. 20 

So, do I find example, rule of life ; 

So, square and set in order the next page, 

Shall be stretched smooth o'er my own funeral cyst. 

' Ahasuerus : see Esther vi. i. Peter to Pope Alexander VIII., who died in 

* Peter first to Alexander last: St. 1691 and was succeeded by Innocent XII. 



36o THE RING AXD THE BOOK. 

Eight hundred years exact before the year 

I was made Pope, men made Formosus ^ Pope, 25 

Say Sigebert - and other chroniclers. 

Ere I confirm or quash the Trial here 

Of Guido Franceschini and his friends. 

Read, — How there was a ghastly Trial once^ 

Of a dead man by a live man, and both, Popes : 30 

Thus — in the antique penman's very phrase. 

'^ Then Stephen,* Pope and seventh of the name, 

Cried out, in synod as he sat in state. 

While choler quivered on his brow and beard, 

' Come into court, Formosus, thou lost wretch, 35 

That claimedst to be late Pope as even I ! ' 

" And at the word the great door of the church 

Flew wide, and in they brought Formosus' self, 

The body of him, dead, even as embalmed 

And buried duly in the Vatican 40 

Eight months before, exhumed thus for the nonce. 

They set it, that dead body of a Pope, 

Clothed in pontific vesture now again, 

Upright on Peter's chair as if alive. 

" And Stephen, springing up, cried furiously 45 

' Bishop of Porto, wherefore didst presume 

To leave that see and take this Roman see, 

Exchange the lesser for the greater see, 

— A thing against the canons of the Church?' 

" Then one — (a Deacon who, observing forms, 50 

Was placed by Stephen to repel the charge. 

Be advocate and mouthpiece of the corpse) — 

Spoke as he dared, set stammeringly forth 

With white lips and dry tongue, — as but a youth, 

For frightful was the corpse-face to behold, — 55 

How nowise lacked there precedent for this. 

" But when, for his last precedent of all. 

Emboldened by the Spirit, out he blurts 

' And, Holy Father, didst not thou thyself 

Vacate the lesser for the greater see, 60 

Half a year since change Arago for Rome ? ' 

^Formosus: Pope (891-895). this and the accounts following of the suc- 
'^ Sigebert : Sigebert II. king of Austrasia, cessive decisions of the popes is given sub- 
afterwards a monk. He is set down as a saint stantially as Browning gives it in Platina's 
in the Romish Calendar. " Lives of the Popes," Dr. Benham's edition. 
■' Honi' there was a ghastly Trial once : * Stephen : Pope (896-897). 




•Jul tiitrntirntau 2Jrjf te J^nn£ la piuJ'faner 
Qu il rciCut iJx. Jtrn pere en vrruurt en cej IteuJ 
U-reJ-cn t} rartd Pantifi:,piruf m>tre tJfJitrran/x , 
Bri/eruuJ^e^j en tcrre,et nam cu.vre lar Citux 



'8 |'MII'iMllill ll llllLII I IMIIII I » I IIIUUUUJJI l .l'''l'''-"'J'JlllJMJ'"r 




POPE INNOCENT XII. 



THE POPE. 361 

' — Ye have the sin's defence now, Synod mine!' 

Shrieks Stephen in a beastly froth of rage : 

•Judge now betwixt him dead and me alive! 

Hath he intruded, or do I pretend? 65 

Judge, judge!' — breaks wavelike one whole foam of wrath. 

"Whereupon they, being friends and followers, 

Said 'Ay, thou art Christ's Vicar, and not he! 

Away with what is frightful to behold! 

This act was uncanonic and a fault.' 70 

••'Then, swallowed up in rage. Stephen exclaimed 

'So. guilty! So, remains I punish guilt! 

He is unpoped. and all he did I damn : 

The Bishop, that ordained him, I degrade : 

Depose to laics those he raised to priests : 75 

What they have wrought is mischief nor shall stand, 

It is confusion, let it vex no more! 

Since I revoke, annul and abrogate 

All his decrees in all kinds : they are void! 

In token whereof and warning to the world, 80 

Strip me yon miscreant of those robes usurped, 

And clothe him with vile serge befitting such! 

Then hale the carrion to the market-place : 

Let the town-hangman chop from his right hand 

Those same three fingers which he blessed withal ; 85 

Next cut the head off once was crowned forsooth : 

And last go fling them, fingers, head and trunk, 

To Tiber that my Christian fish may sup!' 

— Either because of IX0Y2 which means Fish ^ 

And very aptly symbolizes Christ, 90 

Or else because the Pope is Fisherman,* 

And seals with Fisher's-signet. 

" Anyway, 
So said, so done : himself, to see it done. 
Followed the corpse they trailed from street to street 
Till into Tiber wave they threw the thing. 95 

The people, crowded on the banks to see. 
Were loud or mute, wept or laughed, cursed or jeered, 
.According as the deed addressed their sense ; 

■ IX0Y2 which means Fish : the letters ' Pope is Fisherman : because he is the 

of this Greek word form the initials of the successor of Peter, the fisherman, whom 
Greek words for Jesus Christ, of God, Son, Christ said he would make a fisher of men 
Saviour {'\T\(joii<; Xpco-To? ®€oO Yid? 'S.uirqp). (Mark i. 17). 
The fish was used by the early Christians 
as a secret symbol by which they could rec- 
ognize each other. 



362 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

A scandal verily : and out spake a Jew 

'Wot ye your Christ had vexed our Herod thus? ' 100 

" Now when, Formosus being dead a year, 

His judge Pope Stephen tasted death in turn. 

Made captive by the mob and strangled straight, 

Romanus ^ his successor for a month. 

Did make protest Formosus was with God, 105 

Holy, just, true in thought and word and deed. 

Next Theodore,- who reigned but twenty days, 

Therein convoked a synod, whose decree 

Did reinstate, repope the late unpoped. 

And do away with Stephen as accursed. no 

So that when presently certain fisher-folk 

(As if the queasy river could not hold 

Its swallowed Jonas, but discharged the meal) 

Produced the timely product of their nets. 

The mutilated man, Formosus, — saved 115 

From putrefaction by the embalmer's spice, 

Or, as some said, by sanctity of flesh, — 

' Why, lay the body again,' bade Theodore, 

' Among his predecessors, in the church 

And burial-place of Peter! ' which was done. 120 

' And,' added Luitprand,^ ' many of repute, 

Pious and still alive, avouch to me 

That, as they bore the body up the aisle, 

The saints in imaged row bowed each his head 

For welcome to a brother-saint come back.' 125 

As for Romanus and this Theodore, 

These two Popes, through the brief reign granted each. 

Could but initiate what John'* came to close 

And give the final stamp to : he it was 

Ninth of the name, (I follow the best guides) 130 

Who, — in full synod at Ravenna held 

With Bishops seventy-four, and present too 

Eude^ King of France with his Archbishopry, — 

Did condemn Stephen, anathematize 

The disinterment, and make all blots blank, 135 

' For,' argueth here Auxilius ^ in a place 

De Ordhiationibiis'' ' precedents 

' Romanus : became Pope in September, removed to Ravenna on account of disturb- 

897, and held the see for three months and ances in Rome, 

twenty-two days '' Eude : elected King of France in 888. 

2 Theodore : Pope in 898, held the office '' Auxilius : a French theologian who 

twenty days. lived about 900 and wrote some treatises 

^ Luiiprand : a chronicler of the tenth cen- against Pope Sergius III. 

tury, and Bishop of Cremona. Died about 970. '' De Ordinntionibus : concerning ordina- 

* John : (IX.) became Pope in 898. He tions. 



THE POPE. 363 

Had been, no lack, before Formosus long, 
Of Bishops so transferred from see to see, 
Marinus,' for example : ' read the tract. 140 

" But, after John, came Sergius,'- reaffirmed 

The right of Stephen, cursed Formosus, nay 

Cast out, some say, his corpse a second time. 

And here, — because the matter went to ground, 

Fretted by new griefs, other cares of the age, — 145 

Here is the last pronouncing of the Church, 

Her sentence that subsists unto this day. 

Yet constantly opinion hath prevailed 

r the Church, Formosus was a holy man." 

Which of the judgments was infallible? 150 

Which of my predecessors spoke for God? 

And what availed Formosus that this cursed, 

That blessed, and then this other cursed again? 

*• Fear ye not those whose power can kill the body 

And not the soul," saith Christ, '"but rather those 155 

Can cast both soul and body into hell! " 

John judged thus in Eight Hundred Ninety Eight, ^ 

Exact eight hundred years ago to-day. 

When, sitting in his stead, Vice-gerent here, 

1 must give judgment on my own behoof. 160 

So worked the predecessor: now, my turn! 

In God's name! Once more on this earth of God's, 

While twilight lasts and time wherein to work, 

I take His staff with my uncertain hand, 

And stay my six and fourscore years, my due 165 

Labor and sorrow, on His judgment-seat. 

And forthwith think, speak, act, in place of Him — 

The Pope for Christ. Once more appeal is made 

From man's assize to mine : I sit and see 

Another poor weak trembling human wretch 170 

Pushed by his fellows, who pretend the right, 

Up to the gulf which, where I gaze, begins 

From this world to the next, — gives way and way. 

Just on the edge over the awful dark : 

With nothing to arrest him but my feet. 175 

He catches at me with convulsive face. 

Cries " Leave to live the natural minute more! " 

While hollowly the avengfers echo " Leave? 

^ Marinus: there was an ecclesiastic of -Sergius: (III. J Pope, from 904-911. 
"this name in the fourth century 



364 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

None! So has he exceeded man's due share 

In man's fit license, wrung by Adam's fall, 180 

To sin and yet not surely die, — that we. 

All of us sinful, all with need of grace, 

All chary of our life, — the minute more 

Or minute less of grace which saves a soul, — 

Bound to make common cause with who craves time, 185 

— We yet protest against the exorbitance 

Of sin in this one sinner, and demand 

That his poor sole remaining piece of time 

Be plucked from out his clutch : put him to death! 

Punish him now! As for the weal or woe 190 

Hereafter, God grant mercy! Man be just, 

Nor let the felon boast he went scot-free ! " 

And I am bound, the solitary judge, 

To weigh the worth, decide upon the plea, 

And either hold a hand out, or withdraw 195 

A foot and let the wretch drift to the fall. 

Ay, and while thus I dally, dare perchance 

Put fancies for a comfort 'twixt this calm 

And yonder passion that I have to bear, — 

As if reprieve were possible for both 200 

Prisoner and Pope, — how easy were reprieve! 

A touch o' the hand-bell here, a hasty word 

To those who wait, and wonder they wait long, 

r the passage there, and I should gain the life! — 

Yea, though I flatter me with fancy thus, 205 

I know it is but nature's craven-trick. 

The case is over, judgment at an end. 

And all things done now and irrevocable : 

A mere dead man is Franceschini here, 

Even as Formosus centuries ago. 2IO 

I have worn through this sombre wintry day, 

With winter in my soul beyond the world's. 

Over these dismalest of documents 

Which drew night down on me ere eve befell, — 

Pleadings and counter-pleadings, figure of fact 215 

Beside fact's self, these summaries to-wit, — 

How certain three were slain by certain five : 

I read here why it was, and how it went, 

And how the chief 0' the five preferred excuse. 

And how law rather chose defence should lie, — 220 

What argument he urged by wary word 

When free to play off wile, start subterfuge. 

And what the unguarded groan told, torture's feat 

When law grew brutal, outbroke, overbore 

And glutted hunger on the truth, at last, — 225 

No matter for the flesh and blood between. 



\ ' THE POPE. 365 

All 's a clear rede and no more riddle now. 

Truth, nowhere, lies yet everywhere in these — 

Not absolutely in a portion, yet 

Evolvible from the whole : evolved at last 230 

Painfully, held tenaciously by me. 

Therefore there is not any doubt to clear 

When I shall write the brief word presently 

And chink the hand-bell, which 1 pause to do. 

Irresolute? Not I, more than the mound 235 

With the pine-trees on it yonder! Some surmise. 

Perchance, that since man's wit is fallible. 

Mine may fail here? Suppose it so. — what then? 

Say, — Guido, I count guilty, there 's no babe 

So guiltless, for I misconceive the man I 240 

What 's in the chance should move me from my mind? 

If, as I walk in a rough country-side, 

Peasants of mine cry " Thou art he can help. 

Lord of the land and counted wise to boot : 

Look at our brother, strangling in his foam, 245 

He fell so where we find him, — prove thy worth! " 

I may presume, pronounce, " A frenzy-fit, 

A falling-sickness or a fever-stroke! 

Breathe a vein, copiously let blood at once! " 

So perishes the patient, and anon 250 

I hear my peasants — "All was error, lord! 

Our story, thy prescription : for there crawled 

In due time from our hapless brother's breast 

The .serpent which had stung him : bleeding slew 

Whom a prompt cordial had restored to health." 255 

What other should I say than " God so willed : 

IWankind is ignorant, a man am I : 

tall ignorance my sorrow, not my sin!" 

So and not otherwise, in after-time. 

If some acuter wit, fresh probing, sound 260 

This multifarious mass of words and deeds 

Deeper, and reach through guilt to innocence, 

I shall face Guide's ghost nor blench a jot. 

" God who set me to judge thee, meted out 

So much of judging faculty, no more: 265 

Ask Him if I was slack in use thereof! " 

I hold a heavier fault imputable 

Inasmuch as I changed a chaplain once, 

For no c5mse. — no, if I must bare my heart, — 

Save that he snuffled somewhat saying mass. 270 

For I am ware it is the seed of act, 

God holds appraising in His hollow palm. 

Not act grown great thence on the world below. 

Leafage and branchage, vulgar eves admire. 



366 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Therefore I stand on my integrity, 275 

Nor fear at all : and if I hesitate, 

It is because I need to breathe awhile, 

Rest, as the human right allows, review 

Intent the little seeds of act, my tree, — 

The thought, which, clothed in deed, I give the world 280 

At chink of bell and push of arrased door 

O pale departure, dim disgrace of day! 
Winter 's in wane, his vengeful worst art thou, 
To dash the boldness of advancing March ! 
Thy chill persistent rain has purged our streets 285 

Of gossipry ; pert tongue and idle ear 
By this, consort 'neath archway, portico. 
But wheresoever Rome gathers in the gray. 
Two names now snap and flash from -mouth to mouth — 
(Sparks, flint and steel strike) Guido and the Pope. 290 

By this same hour to-morrow eve — aha, 
How do they call him? — the sagacious Swede ^ 
Who finds by figures how the chances prove, 
Why one comes rather than another thing. 
As, say, such dots turn up by throw of dice, 295 

' • Or. if we dip in Virgil - here and there 

And prick for such a verse, when such shall point. 
Take this Swede, tell him, hiding name and rank, 
Two men are in our city this dull eve ; 

One doomed to death, — but hundreds in such plight 300 

Slip aside, clean escape by leave of law 
Which leans to mercy in this latter time ; 
Moreover in the plenitude of life 
Is he, with strength of limb and brain adroit, 
Presumably of service here : beside, 305 

\ The man is noble, backed by nobler friends : 
Nay, they so wish him well, the city's self 
Makes common cause with who — house-magistrate, 
Patron of hearth and home, domestic lord — 
But ruled his own, let aliens cavil. Die? 310 

He '11 bribe a jailer or break prison first! 
Nay, a sedition may be helpful, give 
Hint to the mob to batter wall, burn gate, 
And bid the favorite malefactor march. 

Calculate now these chances of escape! m 315 

"It is not probable, but well may be." 

1 The sagacious Swede : Swedenborg, ten years old at this time, the Pope could 

born at Stockholm in 1688, died 1772. His not have alluded to him in these terms, 
theory of mathematical probabilities is re- ^ If we dip in Virgil: see note, V. 401. 

ferred to here. As he would have been only 



THE POPE. 367 

Again, there is another man, weighed now 

Bv twice eight years beyond the seven-times-ten, 

Appointed overweight to break our branch. 

And this man's loaded branch lifts, more than snow, 320 

All the world's cark and care, though a bird^s nest 

Were a superriuous burthen : notably 

Hath he been pressed, as if his age were youth. 

From to-day's dawn till now that day departs, 

Trying one question with true sweat of soul 325 

'• Shall the said doomed man fitlier die or live? " 

When a straw swallowed in his posset, stool 

Stumbled on where his path lies, any puff 

That "s incident to such a smoking fiax. 

Hurries the natural end and quenches him! 330 

Now calculate, thou sage, the chances here, 

Sav, which shall die the sooner, this or that? 

" That, possibly, this in all likelihood." 

I thought so: yet thou tripp'st, my foreign friend! 

No, it will be quite otherwise, — to-day 335 

Is Guido's last : my term is yet to run. 

But say the Swede were right, and I forthwith 

Acknowledge a prompt summons and lie dead : 

Why, then I stand already in God's face 

And' hear " Since by its fruit a tree is judged, 340 

Show me thy fruit, the latest act of thine! 

For in the last is summed the first and all, — 

What thy life last put heart and soul into. 

There shall I taste thy product." I must plead 

This condemnation of a man to-day. 345 

Not so! Expect nor question nor reply 

At what we figure as God's judgment-bar! 

None of this vile way by the barren words 

Which, more than any deed, characterize 

Man as made subject to a curse : no speech — 350 

That still bursts o'er some lie which lurks inside, 

As the split skin across the coppery snake. 

And most denotes man! since, in all beside. 

In hate or lust or guile or unbelief. 

Out of some core of truth the excrescence comes, 355 

And, in the last resort, the man may urge 

'• So was I made, a weak thing that gave way 

To truth, to impulse only strong since true. 

And hated, lusted, used guile, forewent faith." 

But when man walks the garden of this world 360 

For his own solace, and, unchecked by law. 

Speaks or keeps silence as himself sees fit, 



368 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Without the least incumbency to lie, 

— Why, can he tell you what a rose is like, 

Or how the birds fly, and not slip to false 365 

Though truth serve better? Man must tell his mate 

Of you, me and himself, knowing he lies, 

Knowing his fellow knows the same, — will think 

" He lies, it is the method of a man ! " 

And yet will speak for answer "It is truth " 370 

To him who shall rejoin " Again a lie! " 

^Therefore these filthy rags of speech, this coil 

Of statement, comment, query and response, 

Tatters all too contaminate for use. 

Have no renewing: He, the Truth, is, too, 375 

The Word. We men, in our degree, may know 

There, simply, instantaneous!}', as here 

After long time and amid many lies. 

Whatever we dare think we know indeed 

— That 1 am I, as He is He, — what else? 380 
But be man's method for man's life at least! 

Wherefore, Antonio Pignateili, thou 

My ancient self, who wast no Pope so long 

But studiedst God and man, the many years 

r the school, i' the cloister, in the diocese 385 

Domestic, legate-rule in foreign lands, — 

Thou other force in those old busy days 

Than this gray ultimate decrepitude, — 

Yet sensible of fires that more and more 

Visit a soul, in passage to the sky, 390 

Left nakeder than when flesh-robe was new — 

Thou, not Pope but the mere old man o' the world. 

Supposed inquisitive and dispassionate. 

Wilt thou, the one whose speech I somewhat trust, 

Question the after-me, this self now Pope, 395 

Hear his procedure, criticise his work? 

Wise in its generation is the world. 

This is why Guido is found reprobate. 

I see him furnished forth for his career. 

On starting for the life-chance in our world, 400 

With nearly all we count sufficient help : 

Body and mind in balance, a sound frame, 

A solid intellect : the wit to seek. 

Wisdom to choose, and courage wherewithal 

To deal in whatsoever circumstance 4^5 

Should minister to man, make life succeed. 

Oh, and much drawback! what were earth without? 

Is this our ultimate stage, or starting-place 

To try man's foot, if it will creep or climb, 



THE rOPE. 369 

"Mid obstacles in seeming, points that prove 410 

Advantage for who vaults from low to high 

And makes the stumbling-block a stepping-stone? 

So, Guido, born with appetite, lacks food : 

Is poor, who yet could deftl_v play-off wealth : 

Straitened, whose limbs are restless till at large. 415 

He, as he eyes each outlet of the cirque 

And narrow penfold for probation, pines 

After the good things just outside its grate. 

With less monition, tainter conscience-twitch, 

Rarer instinctive qualm at the first feel 420 

Of greed unseemly, prompting grasp undue, 

Than "nature furnishes her main mankind, — 

Making it harder to do wrong than right 

The first time, careful lest the common ear 

Break measure, miss the outstep of life's march. 425 

Wherein I see a trial fair and fit 

For one else too unfairly fenced about. 

Set above sin, beyond his fellows here : 

Guarded from the arch-tempter all must fight. 

By a great birth, traditionary name, 430 

Diligent culture, choice companionship. 

Above all, conversancy with the faith 

Which puts forth for its base of doctrine just 

" Man is born nowise to content himself. 

But please God." He accepted such a rule, 435 

Recognized man's obedience ; and the Church, 

Which simply is such rule's embodiment. 

He clave to, he held on by, — nay, indeed, 

Near pushed*inside of, deep as layman durst. 

Professed so much of priesthood as might sue 440 

For priest's exemption where the layman sinned, — 

Got his arm frocked which, bare, the law would bruise. 

Hence, at this moment, what 's his last resource, 

His extreme stay and utmost stretch of hope 

But that, — convicted of such crime as law 445 

Wipes not away save with a worldling's blood, — 

Guido, the three-parts consecrate, may 'scape.'' 

Nay, the portentous brothers of the man 

Are veritably priests, protected each 

May do his murder in the Church's pale, 450 

Abate Paul, Canon Ginjlamo! 

This is the man proves irreligiousest 

Of all mankind, religion's parasite! 

This may forsooth plead dinned ear, jaded sense. 

The vice o' the watcher who bides near the bell, 455 

Sleeps sound because the clock is vigilant, 

And cares not whether it be shade or shine. 



370 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Doling out day and night to all men else! 

Why was the choice o' the man to niche himself 

Perversely 'neath the tower where Time's own tongue 460 

Thus undertakes to sermonize the world? 

Why, but because the solemn is safe too, 

The belfry proves a fortress of a sort, 

Has other uses than to teach the hour : 

Turns sunscreen, paravent ^ and ombrifuge^ 465 

To whoso seeks a shelter in its pale, 

— Ay, and attractive to unwary folk 

Who gaze at storied portal, statued spire, 

And go home with full head but empty purse, 

Nor dare suspect the sacristan the thief ! 470 

Shall Judas, — hard upon the donor's heel, 

To filch the fragments of the basket, — plead 

He was too near the preacher's mouth, nor sat 

Attent with fifties in a company? 

No, — closer to promulgated decree, 475 

Clearer the censure of default. Proceed! 

1 find him bound, then, to begin life well ; 

Fortified by propitious circumstance. 

Great birth, good breeding, with the Church for guide. 

How lives he? Cased thus in a coat of proof. 480 

Mailed like a man-at-arms, though all the while 

A puny starveling, — does the breast pant big, 

The limb swell to the limit, emptiness 

Strive to become solidity indeed? 

Rather, he shrinks up like the ambiguous fish, 485 

Detaches flesh from shell and outside show. 

And steals by moonlight (I have seen the thing) 

In and out, now to prey and now to skulk. 

Armor he boasts when a wave breaks on beach, 

Or bird stoops for the prize : with peril nigh, — 490 

The man of rank, the much-befriended-man. 

The man almost atfiliate to the Church, 

Such is to deal with, let the world beware! 

Does the world recognize, pass prudently? 

Do tides abate and sea-fowl hunt i' the deep? 495 

Already is the slug from out its mew, 

Ignobly faring with all loose and free, 

Sand-fly and slush-worm at their garbage-feast, 

A naked blotch no better than tliey all : 

Guido has dropped nobility, slipped the Church, 500 

Plays trickster if not cut-purse, body and soul 

Prostrate among the filthy feeders — faugh! 

'^Paravent: protection against wind. ^ Ombrifuge : refuge from rain. 



THE POPE. yj\ 

And when Law takes liim by surprise at last, 

Catches the foul thing on its carrion-prey, 

Behold, he points to shell left high and dry, 505 

Pleads " But the case out yonder is mj'self ! " 

Nay, it is thou, Law prongs amid thy peers, 

Congenial vermin ; that was none of thee, 

Thine outside, — give it to the soldier-crab! ^ 

For I find this black mark impinge the man, 510 

That he believes in just the vile of life. 

Low instinct, base pretension, are these truth? 

Then, that aforesaid armor, probity 

He figures in, is falsehood scale on scale ; 

Honor and faith, — a lie and a disguise, 515 

Probably for all livers in this world, 

Certainly for himself ! All say good words 

To who will hear, all do thereby bad deeds 

To who must undergo ; so thrive mankind! 

See this habitual creed exemplified 520 

Most in the last deliberate act ; as last. 

So, very sum and substance of the soul 

Of him that planned and leaves one perfect piece, 

The sin brought under jurisdiction now, 

Even the marriage of the man : this act 525 

I sever from his life as sample, shov/ 

For Guido's self, intend to test him by. 

As, from a cup filled fairly at the fount, 

By the components we decide enough 

Or to let flow as late, or staunch the source. 530 

He purposes this marriage, 1 remark. 

On no one motive that should prompt thereto — 

Farthest, by consequence, from ends alleged 

Appropriate to the action ; so they were : 

The best, he knew and feigned, the worst he took. 535 

Not one permissible impulse moves the man, 

From the mere liking of the eye and ear, 

To the true longing of the heart that loves. 

No trace of these : but all to instigate, 

Is what sinks man past level of the brute 54° 

Whose appetite if brutish is a truth. 

All is the lust for money : to get gold, — 

Why, lie, rob, if it must be, murder! Make 

Body and soul wring gold out, lured within 

The clutch of hate by love, the trap's pretence ! 545 

' Soldier-crab : same as hermit-crab. It grows larger. It also sheds its own shell like 
inhabits the empty shell of molluscs, having all crabs, and while waiting for a new shell to 
to change its home from time to time as it form is in a very helpless condition. 



372 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

What good else get from bodies and from souls ? 

This got, there were some life to lead thereby, 

— What, where or how, appreciate those who tell 

How the toad lives : it lives, — enough for me ! 

To get this good, — with but a groan or so, 550 

Then, silence of the victims, — were the feat. 

He foresaw, made a picture in his mind, — 

Of father and mother stunned and echoless 

To the blow, as they lie staring at fate's jaws 

Their folly danced into, till the woe fell ; 555 

Edged in a month by strenuous cruelty 

From even the poor nook whence they watched the wolf 

Feast on their heart, the Iamb-like child his prey ; 

Plundered to the last remnant of their wealth, 

(What daily pittance pleased the plunderer dole) 560 

Hunted forth to go hide head, starve and die, 

And leave the pale awe-stricken wife, past hope 

Of help i' the world now, mute and motionless. 

His slave, his chattel, to first use, then destroy. 

All this, he bent mind how to bring about, 565 

Put plain in act and life, as painted plain. 

So have success, reach crown of earthly good, 

In this particular enterprise of man. 

By marriage — undertaken in God's face 

With all these lies so opposite God's truth, 570 

For end so other than man's end. 

Thus schemes 
Guido, and thus would carry out his scheme : 
But when an obstacle first blocks the path. 
When he finds none may boast monopoly 
Of lies and trick i' the tricking lying world, — 575 

That sorry timid natures, even this sort 
O' the Comparini, want nor trick nor he 
Proper to the kind, — that as the gor-crow treats 
The bramble-finch so treats the finch the moth. 
And the great Guido is minutely matched 580 

By this same couple, — whether true or false 
The revelation of Pompilia's birth. 
Which in a moment brings his scheme to nought, — 
Then, he is piqued, advances yet a stage. 
Leaves the low region to the finch and fly, 585 

Soars to the zenith whence the fiercer fowl 
May dare the inimitable swoop. I see. 
He draws now on the curious crime, the fine 
Felicity and flower of wickedness ; 

Determines, by the utmost exercise 590 

Of violence, made safe and sure by craft, 



THE POPE. 373 

To satiate malic;, pluck one last arch-pang 

From the parercs, else would triumph out of reach, 

By punishing nieir child, within reach yet. 

Who, by thought, word or deed, could nowise wrong 595 

r the matte that now moves him. So plans he. 

Always subordinating (note the point!) 

Revenge, the manlier sin, to interest 

The meaner, — would pluck pang forth, but unclench 

No gripe in the act, let fall no money-piece. 600 

Hence a plan for so plaguing, body and soul. 

His wife, so putting, day by day, hour by hour, 

The untried torture to the untouched place, 

As must precipitate an end foreseen, 

Goad her into some plain revolt, most like 605 

Plunge upon patent suicidal shame, 

Death to herself, damnation by rebound 

To those whose hearts he, holding hers, holds still : 

Such plan as, in its bad completeness, shall 

Ruin the three together and alike, 610 

Yet leave himself in luck and liberty. 

No claim renounced, no right a forfeiture. 

His person unendangered, his good fame 

Without a flaw, his pristine worth intact. — 

While they, with all their claims and rights that cling, 615 

Shall forthwith crumble off him every side. 

Scorched into dust, a plaything for the winds. 

As when, in our Campagna, there is fired 

The nest-like work that overruns a hut ; 

And, as the thatch l)urns here, there, everywhere, 620 

Even to the ivy and wild vine, that bound 

And blessed tlie home where men were happy once, 

There rises gradual, black amid the blaze. 

Some grim and unscathed nucleus of the nest, — 

Some old malicious tower, some obscene tomb 625 

They thought a temple in their ignorance. 

And clung about and thought to lean upon — 

There laughs it o'er their ravage, — where are they.'' 

So did his cruelty burn life about. 

And lay the ruin bare in dreadfulness, 630 

Try the persistency of torment so 

Upon the wife, that, at extremity. 

Some crisis brought about by fire and flame. 

The patient frenzy-stung must needs break loose, 

Fly anyhow, find refuge anywhere. 635 

Even in the arms of who should front her first. 

No monster but a man — while nature shrieked 

" Or thus escape, or die! " The spasm arrived, 

Not the escape by way of sin, — O God, 



374 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Who shall pluck sheep Thou holdest, from Thy hand? 640 

Therefore she lay resigned to die, — si far 

The simple cruelty was foiled. Why \hen, 

Craft to the rescue, let craft supplement 

Cruelty and show hell a masterpiece ! 

Hence this consummate lie, this love-intrigne, 645 

Unmanly simulation of a sin, 

With place and time and circumstance to suit — 

These letters false beyond all forgery — 

Not just handwriting and mere authorship, 

But false to body and soul they figure forth — 650 

As though the man had cut out shape and shape 

From fancies of that other Aretine,^ 

To paste below — incorporate the filth 

With cherub faces on a missal-page! 

Whereby the man so far attains his end 655 

That strange temptation is permitted. — see! 

Pompilia wife, and Caponsacchi priest. 

Are brought together as nor priest nor wife 

Should stand, and there is passion in the place, 

Power in the air for evil as for good, 660 

Promptings from heaven and hell, as if the stars 

Fought in their courses for a fate to be. 

Thus stand the wife and priest, a spectacle, 

I doubt not, to unseen assemblage there. 

No lamp will mark that window for a shrine, 665 

No tablet signalize the terrace, teach 

New generations which succeed the old. 

The pavement of the street is holy ground ; 

No bard describe in verse how Christ prevailed 

And Satan fell like lightning! Why repine? 670 

What does the world, told truth, but lie the more? 

A second time the plot is foiled ; nor, now, 

By corresponding sin for countercheck, 

No wile and trick that bafifle trick and wile. — 

The play o' the parents! here the blot is blanched 675 

By God's gift of a purity of soul , 

That will not take pollution, ermine-like 

Armed from dishonor by its own soft snow. 

Such was this gift of God who showed for once 

How He would have the world go white : it seems 680 

As a new attribute were born of each 

Champion of truth, the priest and wife I praise, — 

As a new safeguard sprang up in defence 

1 That other A retine : Pietro Aretino, author of various obscene writings. 



THE POPE. 375 

Of their new noble nature : so a thorn 

Comes to the aid of and completes the rose — 685 

Courage, to-wit, no woman's gift nor priest's, 

r the crisis; might leaps vindicating right. 

See how the strong aggressor, bad and bold. 

With every vantage, preconcerts surprise, 

Leaps of a sudden at his victinvs throat 690 

In a byeway, — how fares he when face to face 

With Caponsacchi? Who fights, who fears now? 

There quails Count Guido, armed to the chattering teeth, 

Cowers at the steadfast eye and quiet word 

O' the Canon of the Pieve! There skulks crime 695 

Behind law called in to back cowardice! 

While out of the poor trampled worm the wife, 

Springs up a serpent! 

But anon of these! 
Him I judge now, — of him proceed to note. 
Failing the first, a second chance befriends 700 

Guido, gives pause ere punishment arrive. 
The law he called, comes, hears, adjudicates. 
Nor does amiss i' the main, — secludes the wife 
From the husband, respites the oppressed one, grants 
Probation to the oppressor, could he know 705 

The mercy of a minute's fiery purge ! 
The furnace-coals alike of public scorn. 
Private remorse, heaped glowing on his head. 
What if, — the force and guile, the ore's alloy, 
Eliminate, his baser soul refined — 710 

The lost be saved even yet, so as by fire? 
Let him, rebuked, go softly all his days 
And, when no graver musings claim their due, 
Meditate on a man's immense mistake 

Who, fashioned to use feet and walk, deigns crawl — 715 

Takes the unmanly means — ay, though to ends 
Man scarce should make for, would but reach thro' wrong, — 
May sin, but nowise needs shame manhood so : 
Since fowlers hawk, shoot, nay and snare the game, 
And yet eschew vile practice, nor find sport 720 

In torch-light treachery or the luring owl. 

But how hunts Guido ? Why, the fraudful trap — 

Late spurned to ruin by the indignant feet 

Of fellows in the chase who loved fair play — 

Here he picks up the fragments to the least, 725 

Lades him and hies to the old lurking-place 

Where haply he may patch again, refit 

The mischief, file its blunted teeth anew, 



376 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Make sure, next time, first snap shall break the bone. 

Craft, greed and violence complot revenge : 730 

Craft, for its quota, schemes to bring about 

And seize occasion and be safe withal : 

Greed craves its act may work both far and near, 

Crush the tree, branch and trunk and root beside. 

Whichever twig or leaf arrests a streak 735 

Of possible sunshine else would coin itself. 

And drop down one more gold piece in the path : 

Violence stipulates " Advantage proved. 

And safety sure, be pain the overplus! 

Murder with jagged knife! Cut but tear too! 740 

Foiled oft, starved long, glut malice for amends!" 

And what, craft's scheme? scheme sorrowful and strange 

As though the elements, whom mercy checked, 

Had mustered hate for one eruption more, 

One final deluge to surprise the Ark 745 

Cradled and sleeping on its mountain-top : 

Their outbreak-signal — what but the dove''s coo, 

Back with the olive in her bill for news 

Sorrow was over? 'T is an infant's birth. 

Guide's first born, his son and heir, that gives 750 

The occasion : other men cut free their souls 

From care in such a case, fiy up in thanks 

To God, reach, recognize His love for once : 

Guido cries " Soul, at last the mire is thine! 

Lie there in likeness of a money-bag 755 

My babe's birth so pins down past moving now, 

That I dare cut adrift the lives I late 

Scrupled to touch lest thou escape with them! 

These parents and their child my wife, — touch one. 

Lose all! Their rights determined on a head 760 

I could but hate, not harm, since from each hair 

Dangled a hope for me : now — chance and change! 

No right .was in their child but passes plain 

To that child's child and through such child to me. 

I am a father now, — come what, come will, 765 

I represent my child ; he comes between — 

Cuts sudden off the sunshine of this life 

From those three : why, the gold is in his curls! 

Not with old Pietro's, Violante's head. 

Not his gray horror, her more hideous black — 770 

Go these, devoted to the knife! " 

'T is done : 
Wherefore should mind misgive, heart hesitate? 
He calls to counsel, fashions certain four 
Colorless natures counted clean till now, 
— Rustic simplicity, uncorrupted youth, 775 



77//; roPE. m 

Ignorant virtue! Here's the gold o' the prime 

When Saturn ruled, ^ shall shock our leaden day — 

The clown abash the courtier! Mark it, bards! 

The courtier tries his hand on clownship here. 

Speaks a word, names a crime, appoints a price, — 780 

Just breathes on what, suffused with all himself, 

Is red-hot henceforth past distinction now 

r the common glow of hell. And thus they break 

And blaze on us at Rome, Christ's birthnight-eve! 

Oh angels that sang erst "On the earth, peace! 785 

To man, good will!" — such peace finds earth to-day! 

After the seventeen hundred years, so man 

Wills good to man, so Guido makes complete 

His murder! what is it I said? — cuts loose 

Three lives that hitherto he suffered cling, 790 

Simply because each served to nail secure, 

By a corner of the money-bag, his soul, — 

Therefore, lives sacred till the babe's first breath 

0"erweights them in the balance, — off thev fiy! 

So is the murder managed, sin conceived 795 

To the full : and why not crowned with triumph too? 

Why must the sin, conceived thus, bring forth death? 

I note how, within hair's-breadth of escape, 

Impunity and the thing supposed success, 

Guido is found when the check comes, the change, 800 

The monitory touch o' the tether — felt 

By few, not marked by many, named by none 

At the moment, only recognized aright 

r the fulness of the days, for God's, lest sin 

Exceed the service, leap the line : such check — 805 

A secret which this life finds hard to keep. 

And, often guessed, is never quite revealed — 

Needs must trip Guido on a stumbling-block 

Too vulgar, too absurdly plain i' the path! 

Study this single oversight of care, 810 

This hebetude - that marred sagacity, 

Forgetfulness of all the man best knew, — 

How any stranger having need to fly, 

Needs but to ask and have the means of fiight. 

Why, the first urchin tells you, to leave Rome, 815 

Get horses, you must show the warrant, just 

The banal scrap, clerk's scribble, a fair word buys, 

Or foul one, if a ducat sweeten word, — 

' Thi gold o' the prime when Saturn innocent clowns revealed a sort of gold that 
ruled : Greek myth tells of an early golden was baser than lead. 
age when all men were innocent. These ' Hebetude : dulness. 



378 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And straight authority will back demand, 
Give you the pick o' the post-house! — how should he, 820 
Then, resident at Rome for thirty years, 
Guido, instruct a stranger! And himself 
Forgets just this poor paper scrap, wherewith 
Armed, every door he knocks at opens wide 
To save him : horsed and manned, with such advance 825 
O' the hunt behind, why, 't were the easy task 
Of hours told on the fingers of one hand. 
To reach the Tuscan frontier, laugh at home, 
Light-hearted with his fellows of the place. — 
Prepared by that strange shameful judgment, that 830 

Satire upon a sentence just pronounced 
By the Rota^ and confirmed by the Granduke, — 
Ready in a circle to receive their peer. 
Appreciate his good story how, when Rome, 
The Pope-King and the populace of priests 835 

Made common cause with their confederate 
The other priestling who seduced his wife. 
He, all unaided, wiped out the affront 
With decent bloodshed and could face his friends, 
Frolic it in the world's eye. Ay, such tale 840 

Missed such applause, and by such oversight! 
So, tired and footsore, those blood-flustered five 
Went reeling on the road through dark and cold, 
The few permissible miles, to sink at length, 
Wallow and sleep in the first wayside straw, 845 

As the other herd quenched, i' the wash o' the wave,''^ 
— Each swine, the devil inside him : so slept they. 
And so were caught and caged — all through one trip, 
One touch of fool in Guido the astute! 

He curses the omission, I surmise, 850 

More than the murder. Why, thou fool and blind, 
It is the mercy-stroke that stops thy fate, 
Hamstrings and holds thee to thy hurt, — but how? 
On the edge o' the precipice! One minute more. 
Thou hadst gone farther and fared worse, my son, 855 

Fathoms down on the flint and fire beneath! 
Thy comrades each and all were of one mind, 
. Thy murder done, to straightway murder thee 
In turn, because of promised pay withheld. 
So, to the last, greed found itself at odds 860 

With craft in thee, and, proving conqueror, 

' Rota : formerly the supreme court of ^ /' the wash o' the wave : see Matthew 
justice and universal court of appeal. It con- viii. 32. 
sisted of twelve members, called auditors, pre- 
sided over by a dean. 



THE POPE. 379 

Had sent thee, the same night that crowned thy hope, 
Thither where, this same day, I see thee not, 
Nor, through God's mercy, need, to-morrow, see. 

Such I find Guido, midmost blotch of bhick 865 

Discernible in this group of clustered crimes 

Huddling together in the cave they call 

Their palace outraged day thus penetrates. 

Around him ranged, now close and now remote, 

Prominent or obscure to meet the needs 870 

O' the mage and master. I detect each shape 

Subsidiary i' the scene nor loathed the less. 

All alike colored, all descried akin 

By one and the same pitchy furnace stirred 

At the centre : see, they lick the master's hand, — 875 

This fox-faced horrible priest, this brother-brute 

The Abate, — -why, mere wolfishness looks well, 

(iuido stands honest in the red o' the flame, 

Beside this yellow that would pass for white. 

Twice Guido, all craft but no violence, 880 

This copier of the mien and gait and garb 

Of Peter and Paul, that he may go disguised, 

Rob halt and lame, sick folk i' the temple-porch! 

Armed with religion, fortified bv law, 

A man of peace, who trims the midnight lamp 885 

And turns the classic page — and all for craft. 

All to work harm with, yet incur no scratch ! 

While Guido brings the study to a close, 

Paul steps back the due distance, clear o' the trap 

He builds and baits. Guido I catch and judge ; 890 

Paul is past reach in this world and my time : 

That is a case reserved. Pass to the next. 

The boy of the brood, the young Girolamo 

Priest, Canon, and what more? nor wolf nor fox. 

But hybrid, neither craft nor violence 895 

Wholly, part violence part craft : such cross 

Tempts speculation — will both blend one day. 

And prove hell's better product ? Or subside 

And let the simple quality emerge. 

Go on with Satan's service the old way? goo 

Meanwhile, what promise. — what performance too! 

For there "s a new distinctive touch, I see. 

Lust — lacking in the two — hell's own blue tint 

That gives a character and marks the man 

More than a match for yellow and red. Once more, 905 

A case reserved : why should I doubt? Then comes 

The gaunt gray nightmare in the furthest smoke, 

The hag that gave these three abortions birth, 



38o THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Unmotherly mother and unwomanly 

Woman, that near turns motherhood to shame, 910 

Womanliness to loathing : no one word. 

No gesture to curb cruelty a whit 

More than the she-pard ^ thwarts her playsome whelps 

Trying their milk-teeth on the soft o' the throat 

O' the first fawn, flung, with those beseeching eyes, 915 

Flat in the covert! How should she but couch, 

Lick the dry lips, unsheath the blunted claw, 

Catch Hwixt her placid eyewinks at what chance 

Old bloody half-forgotten dream may tiit, 

Born when herself was novice to the taste, 920 

The while she lets youth take its pleasure. Last, 

These God-abandoned wretched lumps of life. 

These four companions, — country-folk this time. 

Not tainted by the unwholesome civic breath. 

Much less the curse o' the Court! Mere striplings too, 925 

Fit to do human nature justice still! 

Surely when impudence in Guido's shape 

Shall propose crime and proffer money's-worth 

To these stout tall rough bright-eyed black-haired boys. 

The blood shall bound in answer to each cheek 930 

Before the indignant outcry break from lip! 

Are these i' the mood to murder, hardly loosed 

From healthy autumn-finish of ploughed glebe. 

Grapes in the barrel, work at happy end. 

And winter near with rest and Christmas play? 935 

How greet they Guido with his final task — 

(As if he but proposed " One vineyard more 

To dig, ere frost come, then relax indeed!") 

" Anywhere, anyhow and anywhy. 

Murder me some three people, old and young, 940 

Ye never heard the names of, — and be paid 

So much! " And the whole four accede at once. 

Demur? Do cattle bidden march or halt? 

Is it some lingering habit, old fond faith 

I' the lord o' the land, instructs them, — birthright badge 945 

Of feudal tenure claims its slaves again ? 

Not so at all, thou noble human heart! 

All is done purely for the pay, — which, earned, 

And not forthcoming at the instant, makes 

Religion heresy, and the lord o' the land 950 

Fit subject for a murder in his turn. 

The patron with cut throat and rifled purse, 

Deposited i' the roadside-ditch, his due. 

Naught hinders each good fellow trudging home, 

^ She-pard : a female leopard. 



THE POPE. 381 

The heavier by a piece or two in poke, 955 

And so with new zest to the common life, 

Mattock and spade, plough-tail and wagon-shaft, 

Till some such other piece of luck betide, 

Who knows? Since this is a mere start in life, 

And none of them exceeds the twentieth year. 960 

Nay. more i' the background yet? Unnoticed forms 

Claim to be classed, subordinately vile? 

Complacent lookers-on that laugh, — perchance 

Sliake head as their friend's horse-play grows too rough 

With the mere child he manages amiss — 965 

But would not interfere and make bad worse 

For twice the fractious tears and prayers : thou know'st 

Civility better, Marzi-Medici, 

Governor for thy kinsman the Granduke! 

Fit representative of law, man's lamp 970 

r the magistrate's grasp full-flare, no rushlight-end 

Sputtering "twixt thumb and finger of the priest! 

Whose answer to the couple's cry for help 

Is a threat, — whose remedy of Pompilia's wrong, 

A shrug o' the slioulder, and facetious word 975 

Or wink, traditional with Tuscan wits, 

To Guido in the doorway. Laud to law! 

The wife is pushed back to the husband, he 

Who knows how these home-squabblings persecute 

People who have the public good to mind, 980 

And work best with a silence in the court! 

Ah, but I save my word at least for thee, 

Archbishop, who art under, i' the Church, 

As I am under God. — thou, chosen by both 

To do the shepherd's office, feed the sheep — 985 

How of this lamb that panted at thy foot 

While the wolf pressed on her within crook's reach? 

Wast thou the hireling that did turn and flee? 

With thee at least anon the little word! 

Such denizens o' the cave now cluster round 990 

And heat the furnace sevenfold : time indeed 

A bolt from heaven should cleave roof and clear place. 

Transfix and show the world, suspiring flame. 

The main otTender, scar and brand the rest 

Hurrying, each miscreant to his hole : then flood 995 

And purify the scene with outside day — 

Which yet. in the absolutest drench of dark, 

Ne'er wants a witness, some stray beauty-beam 

To the despair of hell. 

First of the first, 



382 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Such I pronounce Pompilia, then as now 1 000 

Perfect in whiteness : stoop thou down, my child, 

Give one good moment to the poor old Pope 

Heart-sick at having all his world to blame — 

Let me look at thee in the flesh as erst, 

Let me enjoy the old clean linen garb, 1005 

Not the new splendid vesture! Armed and crowned. 

Would Michael, yonder, be, nor crowned nor armed, 

The less pre-eminent angel? Everywhere 

I see in the world the intellect of man. 

That sword, the energy his subtle spear, 10 10 

The knowledge which defends him like a shield — 

Everywhere ; but they make not up, I think. 

The marvel of a soul like thine, earth's flower 

She holds up to the softened gaze of God! 

It was not given Pompilia to know much, 1015 

Speak much, to write a book, to move mankind, 

Be memorized by who records my time. 

Yet if in purity and patience, if 

In faith held fast despite the plucking fiend. 

Safe like the signet stone with the new name 1020 

That saints are known by, — if in right returned 

For wrong, most pardon for worst injury. 

If there be any virtue, any praise, — 

Then will this woman-child have proved — who knows ? — 

Just the one prize vouchsafed unworthy me, 1025 

Seven years a gardener of the untoward ground, 

I till, — this earth, my sweat and blood manure 

All the long day that barrenly grows dusk : 

At least one blossom makes me proud at eve 

Born 'mid the briers of my enclosure! Still 1030 

(Oh, here as elsewhere, nothingness of man!) 

Those be the plants, imbedded yonder South 

To mellow in the morning, those made fat 

By the master's eye, that yield such timid leaf. 

Uncertain bud, as product of his pains! 1035 

While — see how this mere chance-sown, cleft-nursed seed, 

That sprang up by the wayside 'neath the foot 

Of the enemy, this breaks all into blaze. 

Spreads itself, one wide glory of desire 

To incorporate the whole great sun it loves 1040 

From the inch-height whence it looks and longs! My flower. 

My rose, I gather for the breast of God, 

This I praise most in thee, where all I praise. 

That having been obedient to the end 

According to the light allotted, law 1045 

Prescribed thy life, still tried, still standing test, — 

Dutiful to the foolish parents first. 



THE POPE. 383 

Submissive next to the bad husband, — nay, 

Tolerant of those meaner miserable 

That did his hests, eked out the dole of pain, — 1050 

Thou, patient thus, couldst rise from law to law, 

Tlie old to the new, promoted at one cry 

O' the trump of God to the new service, not 

To longer bear, but henceforth fight, be found 

Sublime in new impatience with the foe! 1055 

Endure man and obey God : plant firm foot 

On neck of man, tread man into the hell 

Meet for him, and obey God all the more! 

Oh child that didst despise thy life so much 

When it seemed only thine to keep or lose, 1060 

How the fine ear felt fall the first low word 

'• Value life, and preserve life for My sake!" 

Thou didst . . . how shall I say? . . . receive so long 

The standing ordinance of God on earth. 

What wonder if the novel claim had clashed 1065 

With old requirement, seemed to supersede 

Too mucli tlie customary law? But, brave, 

Thou at first prompting of what I call God, 

And fools call Nature, didst hear, comprehend, 

Accept the obligation laid on thee, 1070 

Mother elect, to save the unborn child. 

As brute and bird do, reptile and the fly, 

Ay and. 1 nothing doubt, even tree, shrub, plant 

And flower o* the field, all in a common pact 

To worthily defend the trust of trusts, 1075 

Life from the Ever Living : — didst resist — 

Anticipate the office that is mine — 

And with his own sword stay the upraised arm. 

The endeavor of the wicked, and defend 

Him who, — again in my default, — was there 1080 

For visible providence : one less true than thou 

To touch, i' the past, less practised in the right. 

Approved less far in all docility 

To all instruction, — how had such an one 

Made scruple "Is this motion a decree?" 1085 

It was authentic to the experienced ear 

O' the good and faithful servant. Go past me 

And get thy praise, — and be not far to seek 

Presently when I follow if I may! 

And surely not so very much apart 1090 

Need I place thee, my warrior-priest, — in whom 
What if I gain the other rose, the gold,^ 

' The other rose, the gold : an ornament niatlc rif wrought gold, set with gems. It is 



384 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

We grave to imitate God's miracle, 

Greet monarchs witli, good rose in its degree? 

Irregular noble scapegrace — son the same! 1095 

Faulty — and peradventure ours the fault 

Who still misteach, mislead, throw hook and line, 

Thinking to land leviathan 1 forsooth, 

Tame the scaled neck, play with him as a bird, 

And bind him for our maidens! Better bear 11 00 

The King of Pride go wantoning awhile, 

Unplagued by cord in nose and thorn in jaw. 

Through deep to deep, followed by all that shine. 

Churning the blackness hoary : He who made 

The comely terror. He shall make the sword 1105 

To match that piece of netherstone his heart. 

Ay, nor miss praise thereby ; who else shut fire 

V the stone, to leap from mouth at sword's first stroke. 

In lamps of love and faith, the chivalry 

That dares the right and disregards alike mo 

The yea and nay o' the world ? Self-sacrifice, — 

What if an idol took it? Ask the Church 

Why she was wont to turn each Venus here. — 

Poor Rome perversely lingered round, despite 

Instruction, for the sake of purblind love, — 11 15 

Into Madonna's shape, and waste no whit 

Of aught so rare on earth as gratitude! 

All this sweet savor was not ours but thine, 

Nard of the rock, a natural wealth we name 

Incense, and treasure up as food for saints, 1120 

When flung to us — whose function was to give 

Not find the costly perfume. Do I smile? 

Nay, Caponsacchi, much I find amiss. 

Blameworthy, punishable in this freak 

Of thine, this youth prolonged, though age was ripe, 1125 

This masquerade in sober day, with change 

Of motley too, — now hypocrite's disguise, 

Now fool's-costume : which he was least like truth. 

Which the ungainlier, more discordant garb 

With that symmetric soul inside my son, 1 130 

The churchman's or the worldling's, — let him judge. 

Our adversary who enjoys the task! 

I rather chronicle the healthy rage, — 

When the first moan broke from the martyr-maid 

At that uncaging of the beasts, — made bare 1135 

blessed by the Pope on the fourth Sunday of ' Leviathan : Job xli. 102. See also same 
Lent, and afterwards frequently sent as a allusion, V. 1498, and VIII. 1719. 
mark of favor to some distinguished indi- 
vidual, church, or civil community. 



THE rOJ'E. 385 

My athlete on the instant, gave such good 

(ireat undisguised leap over post and pale 

Right into the mid-cirque, free tighting-place. 

There may have been rash stripping — every rag 

Went to the winds. — infringement manifold 1140 

Of laws prescribed pudicity, I tear, 

In this impulsive and prompt self-display! 

Ever such tax comes of the foolish youth ; 

Men mulct the wiser manhood, and suspect 

No veritable star swims out of cloud. 1 145 

Bear thou such imputation, undergo 

The penalty I nowise dare relax, — 

Conventional chastisement and rebuke. 

But for the outcome, the brave starry birth 

Conciliating earth with all that cloud, 11 50 

Thank heaven as I do! Ay, such championship 

Of God at first blush, such prompt cheery thud 

Of glove on ground that answers ringingly 

The challenge of the false knight, — watch we long 

And wait we vainly for its gallant like 1 155 

From those appointed to tlie service, sworn 

His body-guard with pay and privilege — 

White-cinct, because in white walks sanctity. 

Red-socked, how else proclaim fine scorn of flesh, 

Unchariness of blood when blood faith begs! 1160 

Where are the men-at-arms with cross on coat? 

Aloof, bewraying their attire : whilst thou 

In mask and motley, pledged to dance not fight. 

Sprang'st forth the hero! In thought, word and deed, 

How throughout all thy warfare thou wast pure, 1165 

1 find it easy to believe : and if 

At any fateful moment of the strange 

Adventure, the strong passion of that strait, 

Fear and surprise, may have revealed too much. — 

As when a thundrous midnight, with black air 1170 

That burns, rain-drops that blister, breaks a spell, 

Draws out the excessive virtue of some sheathed 

Shut unsuspected flower that hoards and hides 

Immensity of sweetness, — so, perchance. 

Might the surprise and fear release too much 1 175 

The perfect beauty of the body and soul 

Thou savedst in thy passion for God's sake, 

He who is Pity. Was the trial sore? 

Temptation sharp? Thank God a second time! 
/Why comes temptation but for man to meet 1 180 

]And master and make crouch beneath his foot, 

And so be pedestaled in triumph? Pray 

" Lead us into no such temptations, Lord! " 



386 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Yea, but, O Thou whose servants are the bold, 

Lead such temptations by the head and hair, 1185 

Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight. 

That so he may do battle and have praise ! 

Do I not see the praise? — that while thy mates 

Bound to deserve i' the matter, prove at need 

Unprofitable through the very pains 1190 

We gave to train them well and start them fair, — 

Are found too stiif, with standing ranked and ranged, 

For onset in good earnest, too obtuse 

Of ear, through iteration of command. 

For catching quick the sense of the real cry, — 1 195 

Thou, whose sword-hand was used to strike the lute, 

Whose sentry-station graced some wanton's gate. 

Thou didst push forward and show mettle, shame 

The laggards, and retrieve the day. Well done! 

Be glad thou hast let light into the world 1200 

Through that irregular breach o' the boundary, — see 

The same upon thy path and march assured, 

Learning anew the use of soldiership, 

Self-abnegation, freedom from all fear. 

Loyalty to the life's end! Ruminate, 1205 

Deserve the initiatory spasm, — once more 

Work, be unhappy but bear life, my son! 

And troop you, somewhere 'twixt the best and worst, 

Where crowd the indifferent product, all too poor 

Makeshift, starved samples of humanity! 12 10 

Father and mother, huddle there and hide! 

A gracious eye may find you! Foul and fair, 

Sadly mixed natures : self-indulgent, — yet 

Self-sacrificing too : how the love soars. 

How the craft, avarice, vanity and spite 1215 

Sink again ! So they keep the middle course. 

Slide into silly crime at unaware. 

Slip back upon the stupid virtue, stay 

Nowhere enough for being classed, I hope 

And fear. Accept the swift and rueful death, 1220 

Taught, somewhat sternlier than is wont, what waits 

The ambiguous creature, — how the one black tuft 

Steadies the aim of the arrow just as well 

As the wide faultless white on the bird's breast! 

Nay, you were punished in the very part 1225 

That looked most pure of speck, — 't was honest love 

Betrayed you, — did love seem most worthy pains, 

Challenge such purging, since ordained survive 

When all the rest of you was done with? Go! 

Never again elude the choice of tints! 1230 



THE POPE 387 

White shall not neutralize the black, nor good 
Compensate bad in man, absolve him so : 
Life's business being just the terrible choice. 

So do I see, pronounce on all and some 

Grouped for my judgment now, — profess no doubt 1235 

While I pronounce : dark, difficult enough 

The human sphere, yet eyes grow sharp by use, 

I find the truth, dispart the shine from shade, 

As a mere man may. with no special touch 

O' the lynx-gift in each ordinary orb : 1240 

Nay, if the popular notion class me right, 

One of well-nigh decayed intelligence, — 

What of that ? Through hard labor and good will. 

And habitude that gives a blind man sight 

At the practised finger-ends of him, I do 1245 

Discern, and dare decree in consequence, 

Whatever prove the peril of mistake. 

Whence, then, this quite new quick cold thrill, — cloudlike. 

This keen dread creeping from a quarter scarce 

Suspected in the skies 1 nightly scan? 1250 

What slacks the tense nerve, saps the wound-up spring 

Of the act that should and shall be, sends the mount 

And mass o' the whole man's-strength, — conglobed so late — 

Shudderingly into dust, a moment's work? 

While I stand firm, go fearless, in this world, 1255 

For this life recognize and arbitrate, 

Touch and let stay, or else remove a thing. 

Judge "This is right, this object out of place," 

Candle in hand that helps me and to spare, — 

What if a voice deride me, "Perk and pry! 1260 

Brighten each nook with thine intelligence! 

Play the good householder, ply man and maid 

With tasks prolonged into the midnight, test 

Their work and nowise stint of the due wage 

Each worthy worker: but with gyves and whip 1265 

Pay thou misprision of a single point 

Plain to thy happy self who lift'st the light, 

Lament'st the darkling, — bold to all beneath! 

What if thyself adventure, now the place 

Is purged so well? Leave pavement and mount roof, 1270 

Look round thee for the light of the upper sky, 

The fire which lit thy fire which finds default 

In Guido Franceschini to his cost! 

What if, above in the domain of light. 

Thou miss the accustomed signs, remark eclipse? 1275 

Shalt thou still gaze on ground nor lift a lid, — 

Steady in thy superb prerogative, 



388 THE RIXG AND THE BOOK. 

Thy inch of inkHng, — nor once face the doubt 
r the sphere above thee, darkness to be feU?" 

Yet my poor spark had for its source, the sun ; 1280 

Thither I sent the great looks which compel 

Light from its fount : all that I do and am 

Comes from the truth, or seen or else surmised, 

Remembered or divined, as mere man may ; 

I know just so, nor otherwise. As I know, 1285 

1 speak, — what should I know, then, and how speak 

Were there a wild mistake of eye or brain 

As to recorded governance above? 

If my own breath, only, blew coal alight 

I styled celestial and the morning-star? 1290 

I. who in this world act resolvedly, 

Dispose of men, their bodies and their souls, 

As they acknowledge or gainsay the light 

I show them, — shall I too lack courage? — leave 

I, too, the post of me, like those I blame? 1295 

Refuse, with kindred inconsistency, 

To grapple danger whereby souls grow strong? 

1 am near the end ; but still not at the end ; 

All to the very end is trial in life : 

At this stage is the trial of my soul 1300 

Danger to face, or danger to refuse ? 

Shall 1 dare try the doubt now, or not dare? 

O Thou, — as represented here to me 

In such conception as my soul allows, — 

Under Thy measureless, my atom width! — 1305 

Man's mind, what is it but a convex glass 

Wherein are gathered all the scattered points 

Picked out of the immensity of sky. 

To re-unite there, be our heaven for earth. 

Our known unknown, our God revealed to man? 1310 

Existent somewhere, somehow, as a whole ; 

Here, as a whole proportioned to our s.ense, — 

There, (which is nowhere, speech must babble thus!) 

In the absolute immensity, the whole 

Appreciable solely by Thyself, — 13 15 

Here, by the little mind of man, reduced 

To littleness that suits his faculty. 

In the degree appreciable too ; 

Between Thee and ourselves — nay even, again, 

Below us, to the extreme of the minute, 1320 

Appreciable by how many and what diverse 

Modes of the life Thou madest be ! (why live 

Except for love, — how love unless they know?) 



THE POPE. 389 

Each of them, only filling to the edge, 

Insect or angel, his just length and breadth, 1325 

Due facet of reflection, — full, no less, 

Angel or insect, as Thou framedst things. 

I it is who have been appointed here 

To represent Thee, in my turn, on earth, 

Just as, if new philosophy know aught, 1330 

This one earth, out of all the multitude 

Of peopled worlds, as stars are now supposed, — 

Was chosen, and no sun-star of the swarm, 

For stage and scene of Thy transcendent act 

Beside which even the creation fades ^335 

Into a puny exercise of power. 

Choice of the world, choice of the thing I am. 

Both emanate alike from Thy dread play 

Of operation outside this our sphere 

Where things are classed and counted small or great, — 1340 

Incomprehensibly the choice is Thine! 

I therefore bow my head and take Thy place 

There is, beside the works, a tale of Thee 

In the world's mouth, which I find credible: 

I love it with my heart: unsatisfied, 1345 

I try it with my reason, nor discept 

From any point I probe and pronounce sound. 

Mind is not matter nor from matter, but 

Above, — leave matter then, proceed with mind! 

Man's be the mind recognized at the height, — 135° 

Leave the inferior minds and look at man! 

Is he the strong, intelligent and good 

Up to his own conceivable height? Nowise. 

Enough o' the low, — soar the conceivable height, 

Find cause to match the effect in evidence, 1355 

The work i' the world, not man's but God's ; leave man! 

Conjecture of the worker by the work : 

Is there strength there? — enough : intelligence? 

Ample: but goodness in a like degree? 

Not to the human eye in the present state, 1360 

An isoscele deficient in the base.' 

What lacks, then, of perfection fit for God 

But just the instance which this tale supplies 

Of love without a limit? So is strength. 

So is intelligence; let love be so, 1365 

Unlimited in its self-sacrifice. 

Then is the tale true and God shows complete. 

Beyond the tale, I reach into the dark, 

.' An isoscele deficient in the base : two are visible; the third, goodness, is not so in 
sides of the triangle, strength and intelligence, the present state of our knowledge. 



390 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Feel what I cannot see, and still faith stands : 

I can believe this dread machinery 1370 

Of sin and sorrow, would confound me else, 

Devised, — all pain, at most expenditure 

Of pain by Who devised pain, — to evolve, 

By new machinery in counterpart. 

The moral qualities of man — how else? — 1375 

To make him love in turn and be beloved. 

Creative and self-sacrificing too. 

And thus eventually God-like, (ay, 

*' I have said ye are Gods," ^ — shall it be said for naught?) 

Enable man to wring, from qut all pain, 1380 

All pleasure for a common heritage 

To all eternity : this may be surmised. 

The other is revealed, — whether a fact. 

Absolute, abstract, independent truth. 

Historic, not reduced to suit man's mind, — 1385 

Or only truth reverberate, changed, made pass 

A spectrum into mind, the narrow eye, — 

The same and not the same, else unconceived — 

Though quite conceivable to the next grade 

Above it in intelligence, — as truth 1390 

Easy to man were blindness to the beast 

By parity of procedure. — the same truth 

In a new form, but changed in either case : 

What matter so intelligence be filled? 

To a child, the sea is angry, for it roars : 1395 

Frost bites, else why the tooth-like fret on face ? 

Man makes acoustics deal with the sea's wrath*. 

Explains the choppy cheek by chymic law,- — 

To man and child remains the same effect 

On drum of ear and root of nose, change cause 1400 

Never so thoroughly : so my heart be struck. 

What care I, — by God's gloved hand or the bare? 

Nor do I much perplex me with aught hard, 

Dubious in the transmitting of the tale, — 

No, nor with certain riddles set to solve. • 1405 

This life is training and a passage ; pass, — 

Still, we march over some flat obstacle 

We made give way before us ; solid truth 

In front of it, what motion for the world? 

The moral sense grows but by exercise. 1410 

'T is even as man grew probatively 

Initiated in Godship, set to make 

A fairer moral world than this he finds, 

' T have said ye are Gods : see John x. 34. an obsolete form of chime, to sound in har- 
- Chymic law : law o< sound. Chyme is monious accord. 



THE POPE. 391 

Guess now what shall be known hereafter. Deal 

Thus with the present problem: as we see. 1415 

A faultless creature is destroyed, and sin 

Has had its way i' the world where God should rule. 

Ay, but for this irrelevant circumstance 

Of inquisition after blood, we see 

Pompilia lost and Guido saved : how long? 1420 

For his whole life : how much is that whole life.'' 

We are not babes, but know the minute's worth. 

And feel that life is large and the world small. 

So, wait till life have passed from out the world. 

Neither does this astonish at the end, 1425 

That whereas I can so recei/e and trust, 

Otiier men, made with hearts and souls the same, 

Reject and disbelieve, — subordinate 

The future to the present, — sin, nor fear. 

This I refer still to the foremost fact, 1430 

Life is probation and the earth no goal 

But starting-point of man : compel him strive. 

Which means, in man, as good as reach the goal, — 

Why institute that race, his life, at all? 

But this does overwhelm me with surprise, 1435 

Touch me to terror, — not that faith, the pearl, 

Should be let lie by fishers wanting food, — 

Nor, seen and handled by a certain few 

Critical and contemptuous, straight consigned 

To shore and shingle for the pebble it proves, — 1440 

But that, when haply found and known and named 

By the residue made rich for evermore. 

These, — that these favored ones, should in a trice 

Turn, and with double zest go dredge for whelks, 

Mud-worms that make the savory soup! Enough 1445 

O' the disbelievers, see the faithful few! 

How do the Christians here deport them, keep 

Their robes of white unspotted by the world? 

What is this Aretine Archbishop, this 

Man under me a* I am under God, 1450 

This champion of the faith, I armed and decked. 

Pushed forward, put upon a pinnacle, 

To show the enemy his victor, — see! 

What 's the best fighting when the couple close? 

Pompilia cries, " Protect me from the wolf! " 1455 

He — " No, thy Guido is rough, heady, strong, 

Dangerous to disquiet : let him bide! 

He needs some bone to mumble, help amuse 

The darkness of his den with : so, the fawn 

Which limps up bleeding to my foot and lies, 1460 

— Come to me, daughter! — thus 1 throw him back!" 



392 



THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Have we misjudged here, over-armed our knight, 

Given gold and silk where plain hard steel serves best, 

Enfeebled whom we sought to fortify. 

Made an archbishop and undone a saint? 1465 

Well, then, descend these heights, this pride of life. 

Sit in the ashes with a barefoot monk 

Who long ago stamped out the worldly sparks. 

By fasting, watching, stone cell and wire scourge, 

— No such indulgence as unknits the strength — 147° 

These breed the tight nerve and tough cuticle, 

And the world's praise or blame runs rillet-wise 

Off the broad back and brawny breast, we know! 

He meets the first cold sprinkle of the world. 

And shudders to the marrow. " Save this child? 1475 

Oh, my superiors, oh, the Archbishop's self! 

Who was it dared lay hand upon the ark 

His betters saw fall nor put finger forth? 

Great ones could help yet help not : why should small? 

I break my promise : let her break her heart! " 1480 

These are the Christians not the worldlings, not 

The sceptics, who thus battle for the faith! 

If foolish virgins disobey and sleep, 

What wonder? But, this time, the wise that watch. 

Sell lamps and buy lutes, exchange oil for wine, 1485 

The mystic Spouse betrays the Bridegroom here. 

To our last resource, then! Since all flesh is weak, 

Bind weaknesses together, we get strength : 

The individual weighed, found wanting, try 

Some institution, honest artifice 1490 

Whereby the units grow compact and firm! 

Each props the other, and so stand is made 

By our embodied cowards that grow brave. 

The Monastery called of Convertites, 

Meant to help women because these helped Christ, — 1495 

A thing existent only while it acts. 

Does as designed, else a nonentity, — 

For what is an idea unrealized? — 

Pompilia is consigned to these for help. 

They do help : they are prompt to testify 1500 

To her pure life and saintly dying days. 

She dies, and lo, who seemed so poor, proves rich. 

What does the body that lives through helpfulness 

To women for Christ's sake ? The kiss turns bite, 

The dove's note changes to the crow's cry : judge! 1505 

" Seeing that this our Convent claims of right 

What goods belong to those we succour, be 

The same proved women of dishonest life, — 

And seeing that this Trial made appear 



THE POPE. 



393 



Pompilia was in such predicament, — 1510 

The Convent hereupon pretends to said 

Succession of PompiUa. issues writ, 

And takes possession by the Fisc's advice." 

Such is their attestation to the cause 

Of Christ, who had one saint at least, they hoped : 15 15 

i)Ut, is a title-deed to filch, a corpse 

To slander, and an infant-heir to cheat? 

Christ must give up his gains then! They unsay 

All the fine speeches, — who was saint is whore. 

Why. scripture yields no parallel for this! 1520 

Tile soldiers only threw dice for Christ's coat ; 

We want another legend of the Twelve 

Disputing if it was Christ's coat at all. 

Claiming as prize the woof of price — for why? 

The Master was a thief, purloined the same, 1525 

Or paid for it out of the common bag! 

Can it be this is end and outcome, all 

I take with me to show as stewardship's fruit, 

The best yield of the latest time, this year 

The seventeen-hundredth since God died for man? 1530 

Is such effect proportionate to cause? 

And still the terror keeps on the increase 

When I perceive . . . how can I blink the fact? 

That the fault, the obduracy to good. 

Lies not with the impracticable stutT 1535 

Whence man is made, his very nature's fault. 

As if it were of ice the moon may gild 

Not melt, or stone 't was meant the sun should warm 

Not make bear flowers, — nor ice nor stone to blame : 

But it can melt, that ice, can bloom, that stone, 1540 

Impassible to rule of day and night! 
This terrifies me, thus compelled perceive. 

Whatever love and faith we looked should spring 

At advent of the authoritative star. 

Which yet lie sluggish, curdled at the source, — 1545 

These have leapt forth profusely in old time, 

These still respond with promptitude to-day, 

At challenge of — wliat unacknowledged powers 

O" the air, what uncommissioned meteors, warmth 

By law, and light by rule should supersede? 1550 

For see this priest, this Caponsacchi, stung 

At the first summons, — " Help for honor's sake, 

Play the man, pity the oppressed!" — no pause, 

How does he lay about him in the midst. 

Strike any foe, right wrong at any risk, 1555 

All blindness, bravery and obedience! — blind? 

Ay, as a man would be inside the sun. 



394 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Delirious with the plenitude of light 
Should interfuse him to the finger-ends — 
Let him rush straight, and how shall he go wrong? 1560 

Where are the Christians in their panoply? 
The loins we girt about with truth, the breasts 
Righteousness plated round, the shield of faith, 
The helmet of salvation, and that sword 

O' the Spirit, even the word of God, — where these? 1565 

Slunk into corners! Oh, I hear at once 
Hubbub of protestation! " What, we monks. 
We friars, of such an order, such a rule. 
Have not we fought, bled, left our martyr-mark 
At every point along the boundary-line 1570 

'Twixt true and false, religion and the world, 
Where this or the other dogma of our Church 
Called for defence? " And I, despite myself, 
'•^ How can I but speak loud what truth speaks low, 
Or better than the best, or nothing serves! 1575 

What boots deed, I can cap and cover straight 
With such another doughtiness to match. 
Done at an instinct of the natural man?" 
Immolate body, sacrifice soul too, — 

Do not these publicans the same? Outstrip! 1580 

Or else stop race you boast runs neck and neck. 
You with the wings, they with the feet, — for shame! 
Oh, 1 remark your diligence and zeal! 
Five years long, now, rounds faith into my ears, 
" Help thou, or Christendom is done to death! " 1585 

Five years since, in the Province of To-kien, 
Which is in China as some people know, 
Maigrot, my Vicar Apostolic there, 
Having a great qualm, issues a decree. 

Alack, the converts use as God's name, not 1590 

Tien-chu but plain Tien or else mere Shatig-ti, 
As Jesuits please to fancy politic. 
While, say Dominicans, it calls down fire, — 
For lien means heaven, and Shang-ti, supreme prince, 
While Tiefi-c/ui means the lord of heaven : all cry, 1595 

" There is no business urgent for despatch 
As that thou send a legate, specially 
Cardinal Tournon,i straight to Pekin, there 
«,*^ To settle and compose the difference!" 

So have I seen a potentate all fume 1600 

For some infringement of his realm's just right, 

' Cardinal Tournon : was appointed by indiscreet zeal caused him to be imprisoned 
the Pope, apostolic vicar in India. In 1701 by tlje emperor, 
he went on a mission to China, where his 



THE POPE. 395 

Some menace to a mud-built straw-thatched farm 

O' the frontier ; while inside the mainland lie, 

Quite undisputed-for in solitude, 

Whole cities plague may waste or famine sap : 1605 

What if the sun crumble, the sands encroach, 

While he looks on sublimely at his ease? 

How does their ruin touch the empire's bound? 

And is this little all that was to be? 

Where is the gloriously-decisive change, 1610 

Metamorphosis the immeasurable 

Of human clay to divine gold, we looked 

Should, in some poor sort, justify its price? 

Had an adept of the mere Rosy Cross ^ 

Spent his life to consummate the Great Work,'^ 161 5 

Would not we start to see the stuff it touched 

Yield not a grain more than the vulgar got 

Bv the old smelting-process years ago? 

If this were sad to see in just the sage 

Who should profess so much, perform no more, 1620 

What is it when suspected in that Power 

Who undertook to make and made the world. 

Devised and did effect man, body and soul. 

Ordained salvation for them both, and yet . . . 

Well, is the thing we see, salvation? 

I 1625 

Put no such dreadful question to myself, 
Within whose circle of experience burns 
The central truth. Power, Wisdom, Goodness, — God: 
I must outlive a thing ere know it dead : 

When I outlive the faith there is a sun, 1630 

When I lie, ashes to the very soul, — 
Someone, not I, must wail above the heap, 
" He died in dark whence never morn arose." 
While I see day succeed the deepest night — 
How can I speak but as I know? — my speech 1635 

Must be, throughout the darkness, "• It will end : 
Tiie light that did burn, will burn!" Clouds obscure — 
But for which obscuration all were bright? 
Too hastily concluded! Sun-suffused, 

A cloud may soothe the eye made blind by blaze, — 1640 

Better the very clarity of heaven : 

' An adept of the Rosy Cross : a member that by digesting light with dew the philoso- 

of the society of Rosicrucians. The name is pher's stone might be discovered 
derived from riu, dew, and crux, cross. - Great ll'ork : Magnum opus of the 

Crux is in alchemy the synonym of light, so sages, " to find the absolute in the infinite, 

the Rosicrucians were those who believed the indefinite and the finite." 



396 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

The soft streaks are the beautiful and dear. 

What but the weakness in a faith supplies 

The incentive to humanity, no strength 

Absolute, irresistible, comports? 1645 

How can man love but what he yearns to help? 

And that which men think weakness within strength, 

But angels know for strength and stronger yet — 

What were it else but the tirst things made new, 

But repetition of the miracle, 1650 

The divine instance of self-sacrifice 

That never ends and aye begins for man? 

So, never I miss footing in the maze, 

No, — I have light nor fear the dark at all. 

But are mankind not real, who pace outside 1655 

My petty circle, world that's measured me? 
And when they stumble even as I stand, 
Have I a right to stop ear when they cry. 
As they were phantoms who took clouds for crags. 
Tripped and fell, where man's march might safely move? 1660 
Beside, the cry is other than a ghost's, 
When out of the old time there pleads some bard. 
Philosopher, or both,i and — whispers not. 
But words it boldly. " The inward work and worth 
Of any mind, what other mind may judge 1665 

Save God who only knows the thing He made, 
The veritable service He exacts? 
It is the outward product men appraise. 
Behold, an engine hoists a tower aloft : 

' I looked that it should move the mountain too!' 1670 

Or else ' Had just a turret toppled down. 
Success enough!' — may say tne Machinist 
Who knows what less or more result might be : 
But we, who see that done we cannot do, 
'A feat beyond man's force,' we men must say. 1675 

Regard me and that shake I gave the world! 
I was born, not so long before Christ's birth 
, As Christ's birth haply did precede thy day, — 
But many a watch before the star of dawn : 
Therefore I lived, — it is thy creed affirms, 1680 

Pope Innocent, who art to answer me! — 
Under conditions, nowise to escape. 
Whereby salvation was impossible. 
Each impulse to achieve the good and fair. 
Each aspiration to the pure and true, 1685 

Being without a warrant or an aim, 

^ Some bard , philosopher , or both : the followinc; speech is put into the mouth of Euripides. 



THE POPE. 397 

Was just as sterile a felicity 

As if the insect, born to spend his life 

Soaring his circles, stopped them to describe 

(Painfully motionless in the mid-air) 1690 

Some word of weighty counsel for man's sake, 

Some "Know thyself or 'Take the golden mean!'^ 

— P'orwent his happy dance and the glad ray, 

Died half an hour the sooner and was dust. 

I, born to perish like the brutes, or worse, 1695 

Why not live brutishly, obey brutes' law? 

But I, of body as of soul complete, 

A gymnast at the games, philosopher 

r the schools, who painted, and made music, — all 

Glories that met upon the tragic stage 1700 

When the Third Poet's tread surprised the Two,'^ — 

Whose lot fell in a land where life was great 

And sense went free and beauty lay profuse, 

I, untouched by one adverse circumstance. 

Adopted virtue as my rule of life, 1705 

Waived all reward, loved but for loving's sake. 

And, what my heart taught me, I taught the world, 

And have been teaching now two thousand years. 

Witness my work, — plays that should please, forsooth! 

'They might please, they may displease, they shall teach, 1710 

For truth's sake,' so I said, and did, and do. 

Five hundred years ere Paul spoke, Felix heard,^ — 

How much of temperance and righteousness. 

Judgment to come, did I find reason for, 

Corroborate with my strong style that spared 171 5 

No sin, nor swerved the more from branding brow 

Because the sinner was called Zeus and God? 

How nearly did I guess at that Paul knew? 

How closely come, in what I represent 

As duty, to his doctrine yet a blank? 1720 

And as that limner not untruly limns 

Who draws an object round or square, which square 

Or round seems to the unassisted eye. 

Though Galileo's* tube display the same 

Oval or oblong, — so, who controverts 1725 

I rendered rightly what proves wrongly wrought 

Beside Paul's picture? Mine was true for me. 

I saw tliat there are, first and above all, 

^ Some "Know thyself" or "Take the ^ Paul spoke, Felix heard: see Acts 

golden mean" : typical apophthegms of the xxiii. 23; xxiv. 10, 25. 

ancient Greek sages (see Juvenal, " Satires," * Galileo : the distinguished Italian astron- 

xi. 24; Horace, " Satires," i. 106). omer (1564-1642). 

' The Third Poet : Euripides. The Two : 
jEschylus and Sophocles. 



398 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

The hidden forces, bhnd necessities, 

Named Nature, but the thing's self unconceived : 1730 

Then follow, — how dependent upon these, 

We know not, how imposed above ourselves. 

We well know, — what I name the gods, a power 

Various or one : for great and strong and good 

Is there, and little, weak and bad there too, 1735 

Wisdom and folly : say, these make no God, — 

What is it else that rules outside man"s self? 

A fact then, — always, to the naked eye, — 

And so, the one revealment possible 

Of what were unimagined else by man. 1740 

Therefore, what gods do. man may criticise. 

Applaud, condemn, — how should he fear the truth? — 

But likewise have in awe because of power. 

Venerate for the main munificence. 

And give the doubtful deed its due excuse 1745 

From the acknowledged creature of a day 

To the Eternal and Divine. Thus, bold 

Yet self-mistrusting, should man bear himself. 

Most assured on what now concerns him most — 

The law of his own life, the path he prints, — 1750 

Which law is virtue and not vice, I say, — 

And least inquisitive where search least skills, 

r the nature we best give the clouds to keep. 

What could I paint beyond a scheme like this 

Out of the fragmentary truths where light 1755 

Lay fitful in a tenebrific time? 

You have the sunrise now, joins truth to truth, 

Shoots life and substance into death and void ; 

Themselves compose the whole we made before : 

The forces and necessity grow God, — 1760 

The beings so contrarious that seemed gods, 

Prove just His operation manifold 

And multiform, translated, as must be. 

Into intelligible shape so far 

As suits our sense and sets us free to feel. 1765 

What if I let a child think, childhood-long, 

That lightning, I would have him spare his eye. 

Is a real arrow shot at naked orb? 

The man knows more, but shuts his lids the same : 

Lightning's cause comprehends nor man nor child. 1770 

Why then, my scheme, your better knowledge broke. 

Presently re-adjusts itself, the small 

Proportioned largelier, parts and whole named new : 

So much, no more two thousand years have done! 

Pope, dost thou dare pretend to punish me, 1775 

For not descrying sunshine at midnight. 



THE POPE. 399 

Me who crept all-fours, found my way so far — 

While thou rewardest teachers of the truth, 

Who miss the plain way in the blaze of noon, — 

Though just a word from that strong style of mine, 1780 

Grasped honestly in hand as guiding-staff, 

Had pricked them a sure path across the bog, 

That mire of cowardice and slush of lies 

Wherein I find them wallow in wide day I '' 

How should I answer this Euripides? 17S5 

Paul, — \ is a legend, — answered Seneca, 

But that was in the day-spring; noon is now: 

We have got too familiar with the light. 

Shall I wish back once more that thrill of dawn? 

When the whole truth-touched man burned up, one fire? 1790 

— Assured the trial, fiery, fierce, but fleet. 

Would, from his little heap of ashes, lend 

Wings to that conflagration of the world 

Which Christ awaits ere He makes all things new: 

So should the frail become the perfect, rapt 1795 

P>om glory of pain to glory of joy ; and so. 

Even in the end, — the act renouncing earth. 

Lands, houses, husbands, wives and children here, — 

Begin that other act which finds all, lost. 

Regained, in this time even, a hundredfold, 1800 

And. in the next time, feels the finite love 

Blent and embalmed with the eternal life. 

So does the sun ghastlily seem to sink 

In those north parts, lean all but out of life, 

Desist a dread mere breathing stop, then slow 1805 

Re-assert day, begin the endless rise. 

Was this too easy for our after-stage? 

Was such a lighting-up of faith, in life. 

Only allowed initiate, set man's step 

In the true way by help of the great glow? 18 10 

A way wherein it is ordained he walk. 

Bearing to see the light from heaven still more 

And more encroached on by the light of earth, 

Tentatives earth puts forth to rival heaven. 

Earthly incitements that mankind serve God 1815 

For man's sole sake, not God's and therefore mane's 

Till at last, who distinguishes the sun 

From a mere Druid fire on a far mount? 

More praise to him who with his subtle prism 

Shall decompose both beams and name the true. 1820 

In such sense, who is last proves first indeed ; 

For how could saints and martyrs fail see truth 

Streak the night's blackness? Who is faithful now? 



400 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Who untwists heaven's white from the yellow flare 

O' the world's gross torch, without night's foil that helped 1825 

Produce the Christian act so possible 

When in the way stood Nero's cross and stake,i — 

So hard now when the world smiles "Right and wise! 

Faith points the politic, the thrifty way. 

Will make who plods it in the end returns 1830 

Beyond mere fooPs-sport and improvidence. 

We fools dance thro' the cornfield of this life, 

Pluck ears to left and right and swallow raw, 

— Nay, tread, at pleasure, a sheaf underfoot, 

To get the better at some poppy-flower, — 1835 

Well aware we shall have so much less wheat 

In the eventual harvest : you meantime 

Waste not a spike, — the richlier will you reap! 

What then? There will be always garnered meal 

Sufficient for our comfortable loaf, 1840 

While you enjoy the undiminished sack! " 

Is it not this ignoble confidence. 

Cowardly hardihood, that dulls and damps, 

Makes the old heroism impossible? 

Unless . . . what whispers me of times to come? 1845 

What if it be the mission of that age 

My death will usher into life, to shake 

This torpor of assurance from our creed. 

Re-introduce the doubt discarded, bring 

That formidable danger back, we drove 1850 

Long ago to the distance and the dark ? 

No wild beast now prowls round the infant camp : 

We have built wall and sleep in city safe : 

But if some earthquake try the towers that laugh 

To think they once saw lions rule outside, I §55 

And man stand out again, pale, resolute, 

Prepared to die, — which means, alive at last? 

As we broke up that old faith of the world. 

Have we, next age, to break up this the new — 

Faith, in the thing, grown faith in the report — i860 

Whence need to bravely disbelieve report 

Through increased faith i' the thing reports belie? 

Must we deny, — do they, these Molinists, 

At peril of their body and their soul. — 

Recognized truths, obedient to some truth 1865 

Unrecognized yet, but perceptible? — 

Correct the portrait by the living face, 

'^Nero's cross and stake: the Emperor Nero (37-68 a.d.) crucified and burned the 
Christians. 



THE POPE. 401 

Man's God, by God's God in the mind of man? 

Tlien, for the few tiiat rise to the new height, 

The many that must sink to the old depth, 1870 

The multitude found fall away! A few. 

E'en ere new law speak clear, may keep the old. 

Preserve the Christian level, call good good 

And evil evil, (even though razed and blank 

The old titles,) helped by custom, habitude, 1875 

And all else they mistake for finer sense 

O' the fact that reason warrants, — as before. 

They hope perhaps, fear not impossibly. 

At least some one Pompilia left the world 

Will say •' I know the right place by foot's feel, 1880 

I took it and tread firm there ; wherefore change?" 

But what a multitude will surely fall 

Quite through the crumbling truth, late subjacent, 

Sink to the next discoverable base. 

Rest upon human nature, settle there 1885 

On what is firm, the lust and pride of life! 

A mass of men. whose very souls even now 

Seem to need re-creating, — so they slink 

Worm-like into the mud, light now lays bare, — 

Wliose future we dispose of with shut eyes 1890 

And whisper — "'They are grafted, barren twigs. 

Into the living stock of Christ : may bear 

One day, till when they lie death-like, not dead," — 

Those who with all the aid of Christ succumb. 

How, without Christ, shall they, unaided, sink? 1895 

Whither but to this gulf before my eyes? 

Do not we end, the century and I ? 

The impatient antimasque treads close on kibe 

O' the very masque's self it will mock, — on me. 

Last lingering personage, the impatient mime 1900 

Pushes already, — will 1 block the way? 

Will my slow trail of garments ne'er leave space 

For pantaloon, sock, plume and castanet? 

Here comes the first experimentalist 

In the new order of things, — he plays a priest ; 1905 

Does he take inspiration from the Ciiurch, 

Directly make her rule his law of life? 

Not he : his own mere impulse guides the man — 

Happily sometimes, since ourselves allow 

He has danced, in gaiety of heart, i' the main 1910 

The right step through the maze we bade him foot. 

But if his heart had prompted him break loose 

And mar the measure? Why, we must submit. 

And thank the chance that brought him safe so far. 

Will he repeat the prodigy? Perhaps. 191 5 

2D 



402 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Can he teach others how to quit themselves, • 

Show why this step was riglit while that were wrong? 

How should he? " Ask your hearts as I ask mine, 

And get discreetly through the morrice ^ too ; 

If your hearts misdirect you, — quit the stage, 1920 

And make amends, — be there amends to make! " 

Such is, for the Augustin that was once. 

This Canon Caponsacchi we see now. 

" But my heart answers to another tune," 

Puts in the Abate, second in the suite. 1925 

" I have my taste too, and tread no such step! 

You choose the glorious life, and may, for me! 

I like the lowest of life's appetites, — 

So you judge, — -but the very truth of joy 

To my own apprehension which decides. 193° 

Call me knave and you get yourself called fool! 

I live for greed, ambition, lust, revenge ; 

Attain these ends by force, guile : hypocrite, 

To-day, perchance to-morrow recognized 

The rational man, the type of common sense." 1935 

There 's Loyola ^ adapted to our time! 

Under such guidance Guido plays his part, 

He also influencing in the due turn 

These last clods where 1 track intelligence 

By any glimmer, these four at his beck 1940 

Ready to murder any, and, at their own. 

As ready to murder him, — such make the world! 

And, first effect of the new cause of things. 

There they lie also duly, — the old pair 

Of the weak head and not so wicked heart, 1945 

With the one Christian mother, wife and girl, 

— Which three gifts seem to make an angel up, — 

The world's first foot o' the dance is on their heads! 

Still, I stand here, not off the stage though close 

On the exit : and my last act, as my first. 1950 

I owe the scene, and Him who armed me thus 

With Paul's sword as with Peter's key. I smite 

With my whole strength once more, ere end my part, 

Ending, so far as man may, this offence. 

And when I raise my arm, who plucks my sleeve? 1955 

Who stops me in the righteous function, — foe 

Or friend? Oh, still as ever, friends are they 

Who, in the interest of outraged truth 

Deprecate such rough handling of a lie! 

The facts being proved and incontestable, i960 

1 Morrice = morris, a kind of dance ^ Loyola : St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of 

the Jesuits (1491-1556). 



THE rOPE. 403 

What is the last word I must listen to? 

Perchance — " Spare yet a term this barren stock 

We pray thee dig about and dvmg and dress 

Till he repent and bring forth fruit even yet!" 

Perchance — " So poor and swift a punishment 1965 

Shall throw him out of life with all that sin : 

Let mercy rather pile up pain on pain 

Till the fiesh expiate what the soul pays else ! " 

Nowise! Remonstrants on each side commence 

Instructing, there 's a new tribunal now 1970 

Higher than God's — the educated man's! 

Nice sense of honor in the human breast 

Supersedes here the old coarse oracle — 

Confirming none the less a point or so 

Wherein blind predecessors worked aright 1975 

By rule of thumb : as when Christ said. — when, where? 

Enough. I find it pleaded in a place, — 

'• All other wrongs done, patiently I take : 

But touch my honor and the case is changed! 

I feel the due resentment, — nemini 1980 

Honorein trado'^ is my quick retort." 

Right of Him. just as if pronounced to-day! 

Still, should the old authority be mute 

Or doubtful or in speaking clash with new. 

The younger takes permission to decide. 1985 

At last we have the instinct of the world 

Ruling its household without tutelage : 

And while the two laws, human and divine. 

Have busied finger with this tangled case. 

In pushes the brisk junior, cuts the knot, 1990 

Pronounces for acquittal. How it trips 

Silverly o'er the tongue! " Remit the death! 

Forgive, . . . well, in the old way, if thou please, 

Decency and the relics of routine 

Respected. — let the Count go free as air! 1995 

Since he may plead a priest's immunity, — 

The minor orders help enough for that, 

With Farinacci's license, — who decides 

That the mere implication of such man. 

So privileged, in any cause, before 2000 

Whatever Court except the Spiritual, 

Straight quashes law-procedure, — quash it, then! 

Remains a pretty loophole of escape 

Moreover, that, beside the patent fact 

O' the law's allowance, there 's involved the weal 2005 

' Nemini honorem trado : " I will not give mine honor to another." See Isaiah xlii. 8, 
xlviii. II. 



404 THE RIXG AXD THE BOOK. 

O' the Popedom : a son's privilege at stake, 

Thou wilt pretend the Church's interest, 

Ignore all finer reasons to forgive! 

But herein lies the crowning cogency — 

(Let thy friends teach thee while thou tellest beads) 2010 

That in this case the spirit of culture speaks, 

Civilization is imperative. 

To her shall we remand all delicate points 

Henceforth, nor take irregular advice 

O' the sly, as heretofore : she used to hint 2015 

Remonstrances, when law was out of sorts 

Because a saucy tongue was put to rest, 

An eye that roved was cured of arrogance : 

But why be forced to mumble under breath 

What soon shall be acknowledged as plain fact, 2020 

Outspoken, say, in thy successor's time? 

Methinks we see the golden age return! 

Civilization and the Emperor 

Succeed to Christianity and Pope. 

One Emperor then, as one Pope now : meanwhile, 2025 

Anticipate a little! We tell thee 'Take 

Guido's life, sapped society shall crash, 

Whereof the main prop was, is, and shall be 

— Supremacy of husband over wife !' 

Does the man rule i' the house, and may his mate 2030 

Because of any plea dispute the same? 

Oh, pleas of all sorts shall abound, be sure, 

One but allowed validity, — for, harsh 

And savage, for, inept and silly-sooth. 

For, this and that, will the ingenious sex 2035 

Demonstrate the best master e'er graced slave : 

And there 's but one short way to end the coil, — 

Acknowledge right and reason steadily 

r the man and master: then the wife submits 

To plain truth broadly stated. Does the time 2040 

Advise we shift — a pillar? nay, a stake 

Out of its place i' the social tenement? 

One touch may send a shudder through the heap 

And bring it toppling on our children's heads! 

Moreover, if ours breed a qualm in thee, 2045 

Give thine own better feeling play for once! 

Thou, whose own life winks o'er the socket-edge, 

Wouldst thou it went out in such ugly snuff 

As dooming sons dead, e'en though justice prompt? 

Why, on a certain feast, Barabbas' self ^ 2050 

Was set free, not to cloud the general cheer : 

^ Barabbas' self ; see Mark xxvii. 15. 



• THE J'OPE. 405 

Neither shalt thou polUite thy Sabbath close! 

Mercy is safe and graceful. How one hears 

The howl begin, scarce the three little taps ^ 

O' the silver mallet silent on thy brow, — 2055 

• His last act was to sacrifice a Count 

And thereby screen a scandal of the Church! 

Guide condemned, the Canon justified 

Of course, — delinquents of his cloth go free! ' 

And so the Luthers chuckle, Calvins scowl, 2060 

So thy hand helps JVlolinos to the chair 

Whence he may hold forth till doom's day on just 

T\\&?>t petii-//!aiire- priestlings, — in the choir 

Saficius et Iknedictiis? with a brush 

Oft soft guitar-strings that obey the thumb, 2065 

Touched by the bedside, for accompaniment! 

Does this give umbrage to a husband ? Death 

To the fool, and to the priest impunity! 

But no impunity to any friend 

So simply over-loyal as these four 2070 

Who made religion of their patron's cause. 

Believed in him and did his bidding straight. 

Asked not one question but laid down the lives 

This Pope took, — all four lives together make 

Just his own length of days, — so, dead they lie, 2075 

As these were times when loyalty \s a drug, 

And zeal in a subordinate too cheap 

And common to be saved when we spend life! 

Come, 't is too much good breath we waste in words : 

The pardon, Holy Father! Spare grimace, 2080 

Shrugs and reluctance! Are not we the world, 

Art not thou Priam?'* Let soft culture plead 

Hecuba-like,^ ' tioii taW^ (Virgil serves) 

'■ Auxilio^ and the rest! Enough, it works! 

The Pope relaxes, and the Prince is loth, 2085 

The father's bowels yearn, the man's will bends, 

Reply is apt. Our tears on tremble, hearts 

Big with a benediction, wait the word 

Shall circulate thro' the city in a trice, 

Set every window flaring, give each man 2090 

O' the mob his torch to wave for gratitude. 

Pronounce then, for our breath and patience fail! " 

' The three little taps : when a pope dies, * Priam : the last king of Troy. 

the Cardinal Camerlengo has to assure him- f' Hecuha : wife of Priam. 

self of his death by tapping thrice on his fore- " Alon tali: see Virgil's " /Eneid," ii. 519. 

head with a silver mallet. JVo/i tali auxilii', nee de/cnsoribus istis 

- Peiit-ma'itrc : coxcomb. tempits eget : the crisis requires not such aid 

3 Sanctus et Benedictus : holy and nor such defenders as thou art. 

blessed. 



4o6 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

I will, Sirs : but a voice other than yours 

Quickens my spirit. " Qnis pro Domino ? 

Who is upon the Lord's side?" asked the Count. 2095 

I, who write — 

" On receipt of this command, 
Acquaint Count Guido and his fellows four 
They die to-morrow : could it be to-night, 
The better, but the work to do, takes time. 
Set with all diligence a scaffold up, 2100 

Not in the customary place, by Bridge 
Saint Angelo, where die the common sort ; 
But since the man is noble, and his peers 
By predilection haunt the People's Square, 
There let him be beheaded in the midst, 2105 

And his companions hanged on either side : 
So shall the quality see, fear and learn. 
All which work takes time : till to-morrow, then. 
Let there be prayer incessant for the five! " 

For the main criminal I have no hope 21 10 

Except in such a suddenness of fate. 

I stood at Naples once, a night so dark 

1 could have scarce conjectured there was earth 

Anywhere, sky or sea or world at all : 

But the night's black was burst through by a blaze — 21 15 

Thunder struck blow on blow, earth groaned and bore, 

Through her whole length of mountain visible : 

There lay the city thick and plain with spires, 

And, like a ghost disshrouded, white the sea. 

So may the truth be flashed out by one blow, 2020 

And Guido see, one instant, and be saved. 

Else I avert my face, nor follow him 

Into that sad obscure sequestered state 

Where God unmakes but to remake the soul 

He else made first in vain ; which must not be. 2125 

Enough, for I may die this very night : 

And how should I dare die, this man let live ? 

Carry this forthwith to the Governor! 



GUIDO. 407 



XL 

GUIDO. 

[Guide's last words, as a condemned man facing death, are given in Book XI. 
While his confessors, who are sent to watch beside him, await the hour calling him 
to the scaffold, his baffled soul beats against his doom, and, growing more and 
more aware of its helplessness, reveals itself more and more nakedly. He strives 
successively to conciliate his confessors, to convict the Pope and Christianity of 
pretence, unprecedented rigor, and of oppression in extorting a confession from 
him as warrant for the wrong done him ; to explain and justify his course ; to 
charge on Pompilia's " nullity " the responsibility for his " mistake " ; and to repre- 
sent himself as a fiery soul capable of valuing a bolder wife. Frantic and defiant, 
he seeks, at last, to bribe and then to threaten and taunt his confessors. Finally, 
with the Brothers of Mercy at the door, in a panic of terror, he pleads for his life 
with all the powers he knows, the greatest of these being — Pompilia.] 

You are the Cardinal Acciaiuoli, and you, 

Abate Panciatichi — two good Tuscan names : 

Acciaiuoli — ah, your ancestor it was 

Built the huge battlemented convent-block ^ 

Over the little forky flashing Greve 5 

That takes the quick turn at the foot o' the hill 

Just as one first sees Florence : oh those days! 

'T is Ema, though, the other rivulet, 

The one-arched brown brick bridge yawns over, — yes. 

Gallop and go five minutes, and you gain 10 

The Roman Gate froin where the Ema's bridged : 

Kingfishers fly there : how I see the bend 

O'erturreted by Certosa which he built. 

That Seneschal (we styled him) of your House! 

I do adjure you, help me, Sirs! My blood 15 

Comes from as far a source : ought it to end 

This way, by leakage through their scaffold-planks 

Into Rome's sink where her red refuse runs? 

Sirs, I beseech you by blood-sympathy, 

If there be any vile experiment 20 

In the air, — if this your visit simply prove, 

When all 's done, just a well-intentioned trick. 

That tries for truth truer than truth itself. 

By startling up a man, ere break of day, 

To tell him he must die at sunset, — pshaw! 25 

' The huge battlemented convent-block . . . Certosa: a Carthusian monastery in Val 
Emo, about four miles from Florence. 



4d8 the ring and THE BOOK. 

That man 's a Franceschini ; feel his pulse, 

Laugh at your foil}', and let 's all go sleep ! 

You have my last word, — innocent am I 

As Innocent my Pope and murderer, 

Innocent as a babe, as Mary's own, 30 

As Mary's self, — I said, say and repeat, — 

And why, then, should I die twelve hours hence? I — 

Whom, not twelve hours ago, the jailer bade 

Turn to my straw-truss, settle and sleep sound 

That I might wake the sooner, promptlier pay 35 

His due of meat-and-drink-indulgence, cross 

His palm with fee of the good-hand, beside, 

As gallants use who go at large again! 

For why? All honest Rome approved my part ; 

Whoever owned wife, sister, daughter, — • nay, 40 

Mistress, — had any shadow of any right 

That looks like right, and, all the more resolved, 

Held it with tooth and nail, — these manly men 

Approved ! I being for Rome, Rome was for me. 

Then, there's the point reserved, the subterfuge 45 

My lawyers held by, kept for last resource. 

Firm should all else, — the impossible fancy! — fail, 

And sneaking burgess-spirit win the day. 

The knaves ! One plea at least would hold, — they laughed, — 

One grappling-iron scratch the bottom-rock 50 

Even should the middle mud let anchor go! 

I hooked my cause on to the Clergy's, — plea 

Which, even if law tipped off my hat and plume, 

Revealed my priestly tonsure, saved me so. 

The Pope moreover, this old Innocent, 55 

Being so meek and mild and merciful. 

So fond o' the poor and so fatigued of earth. 

So . . . fifty thousand devils in deepest hell! 

Why must he cure us of our strange conceit 

Of the angel in man's likeness, that we loved 60 

And looked should help us at a pinch? He help? 

He pardon? Here 's his mind and message — death! 

Thank the good Pope! Now, is he good in this. 

Never mind. Christian, — no such stuff's extant, — 

But will my death do credit to his reign, 65 

Show he both lived and let live, so was good? 

Cannot I live if he but like? " The law! " 

Why, just the law gives him the very chance, 

The precise leave to let my life alone. 

Which the archangelic soul of him (he says) 70 

Yearns after! Here they drop it in his palm, 

My lawyers, capital o' the cursed kind, — 

Drop life to take and hold and keep : but no! 




COUNT GUIOO. 



Gurno. 409 

He sighs, shakes head, refuses to shut hand, 

Motions away tiie gift they bid him grasp, 75 

And of the coyness comes — that oft" I run ^ 

And down I go, he best knows whither! mind, 

He knows, who sets me rolHng all the same! 

Disinterested Vicar of our Lord, 

This way he abrogates and disallows, 80 

Nullifies and ignores, — reverts in fine 

To the good and right, in detriment of me! 

Talk away! Will you have the naked truth? 

He "s sick of his life's supper, — swallowed lies : 

So, hobbling bedward, needs must ease his maw 85 

Just where I sit o' the door-sill. Sir Abate, 

Can you do nothing? Friends, we used to frisk : 

What of this sudden slash in a friend's face, 

This cut across our good companionship 

That showed its front so gay when both were young? 90 

Were not we put into a beaten path, 

Bid pace the world, we nobles born and bred. 

We body of friends with each his scutcheon full 

Of old achievement and impunity, — 

Taking the laugh of morn and Sol's salute 95 

As forth we fared, pricked on to breathe our steeds 

And take equestrian sport over the green 

Under the blue, across the crop, — what care ? 

If we went prancing up hill and down dale, 

In and out of the level and the straight, 100 

By the bit of pleasant byeway, where was harm ? 

Still Sol salutes me and the morning laughs : 

I see my grandsire's hoof-prints, — point the spot 

Where he drew rein, slipped saddle, and stabbed knave 

For daring throw gibe — much less, stone- -from pale : ■ 105 

Then back, and on, and up with the cavalcade. 

Just so wend we, now canter, now converse. 

Till, "mid the jauncing pride and jaunty port, 

Something of a sudden jerks at somebody — 

A dagger is out, a Hashing cut and thrust, no 

Because I play some prank my grandsire played. 

And here I sprawl : where is the company? Gone! 

A trot and a trample! only I lie trapped. 

Writhe in a certain novel springe just set 

By the good old Pope : I 'm fir.st prize. Warn me ? Why ? 1 1 5 

Apprise me that the law o' the game is changed? 

Enough that I 'm a warning, as I writhe. 

To all and each my fellows of the file. 

And make law plain henceforward past mistake, 

" For such a prank, death is the penalty! " 120 

Pope the Five Hundredth (what do I know or care?) 



4IO THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Deputes your Eminency and Abateship 
To announce that, twelve hours from this time, he needs 
1 just essay upon my body and soul 

The virtue of his brand-new engine, prove 125 

Represser of the pranksome! I 'm the first! 
Thanks. Do you know what teeth you mean to try 
The sharpness of, on this soft neck and throat ? 
I know it, — I have seen and hate it, — ay. 
As you shall, while I tell you! Let me talk, 130 

Or leave me, at your pleasure! talk I must: 
What is your visit but my lure to talk? 
Nay, you have something to disclose? — a smile, 
' At end of the forced sternness, means to mock 

The heart-beats here? I call your two hearts stone! 135 

Is your charge to stay with me till I die? 

Be tacit as your bench, then! Use your ears, 

I use my tongue : how glibly yours will run 

At pleasant supper-time . . . God's curse! . . . to-night 

When all the guests jump up, begin so brisk 140 

"Welcome, his Eminence who shrived the wretch! 

Now we shall have the Abate's story! " 

Life! 
How I could spill this overplus of mine 
I Among those hoar-haired, shrunk-shanked odds and ends 
Of body and soul old age is chewing dry! 145 

Those windlestraws that stare while purblind death 
Mows here, mows there, makes hay of juicy me. 
And misses just the bunch of withered weed 
Would brighten hell and streak its smoke with flame! 
How the life I could shed yet never shrink, 150 

Would drench their stalks with sap like grass in May! 
Is it not terrible, I entreat you, Sirs? — 
With manifold and plenitudinous life. 
Prompt at death's menace to give blow for threat, 
Answer his "Be thou not!" by "Thus I am!" — 155 

Terrible so to be alive yet die? 

How I live, how I see! so. — how I speak! 

Lucidity of soul unlocks the lips : 

I never had the words at will before. 

How I see all my folly at a glance! 160 

" A man requires a woman and a wife : " 

There was my folly ; I believed the saw. 

I knew that just myself concerned myself, 

Yet needs must look for what I seemed to lack. 

In a woman, — why, the woman's in the man! 165 

Fools we are, how we learn things when too late! 



GUI DO. 411 

Overmuch life turns round my woman-side : 

The male and female in me, mixed before. 

Settle of a sudden : I 'm my wife outright 

In this unmanly appetite for truth, 170 

This careless courage as to consequence. 

This instantaneous sight through things and through, 

This voluble rhetoric, if you please, — 't is she! 

Here you have that Pompilia whom I slew. 

Also the folly for which 1 slew her! 

Fool! 175 

And, fool-like, what is it 1 wander from ? 
What did I say of your sharp iron tooth ? 
Ah, — that I know the hateful thing! this way. 
I chanced to stroll forth, many a good year gone, 
One warm Sprmg eve in Rome, and unaware 180 

Looking, mayhap, to count what stars were out. 
Came on vour fine axe in a frame, that falls 
And so cuts off a man's head underneath, 
Mannaia, — thus we made acquaintance first : 
Out of the way, in a by-part o' the town, 185 

At the Mouth-of-Truth ^ o' the river-side, you know : 
One goes by the Capitol : and wherefore coy. 
Retiring out of crow'ded noisy Rome ? 
Because a very little time ago 

It had done sendee, chopped off head from trunk 190 

Belonging to a fellow whose poor house 
The thing must make a point to stand before — 
Felice Whatsoever-was-the-name 
Who stabled buffaloes and so gained bread, 
(Our clowns unyoke them in the ground hard by) 195 

And, after use of much improper speech. 
Had struck at Duke Some-title-or-other's face. 
Because he kidnapped, carried away and kept 
Felice's sister who would sit and sing 

r the filthy doorway while she plaited fringe 200 

To deck the brutes with, — on their gear it goes, — 
The good girl with the velvet in her voice. 
So did the Duke, so did Felice, so 
Did Justice, intervening with her axe. 

There the man-mutilating engine stood 205 

At ease, both gay and grim, like a Swiss guard 
Off duty, — purified itself as well. 
Getting dry, sweet and proper for next week, — 
And doing incidental good, "t was hoped 

'^Mouth-of-Truth: Bocca della Verit&, a believed that should a doubtful witness put 
huge mask of stone in the portico of the his hand in the mouth of this mask, if he were 
Church Sta. Maria in Cormedin. It was false, he could not draw it out again. 



412 THE RIXG AiVD THE BOOK. 

To the rough lesson-lacking populace 210 

Who now and then, forsooth, must right their wrongs! 

There stood the twelve-foot-square of scaffold, railed 

Considerately round to elbow-height. 

For fear an officer should tumble thence 

And sprain his ankle and be lame a month, 215 

Through starting when the axe fell and head too! 

Railed likewise were the steps whereby 't was reached. 

All of it painted red : red, in the midst, 

Ran up two narrow tall beams barred across, 

Since from the summit, some twelve feet to reach, 220 

The iron plate with the sharp shearing edge 

Had slammed, jerked, shot, slid, — I shall soon find which! — 

And so lay quiet, fast in its fit place. 

The wooden half-moon collar, now eclipsed 

By the blade which blocked its curvature : apart, 225 

The other half, — the under half-moon board 

Which, helped by this, completes a neck's embrace, — 

Joined to a sort of desk that wheels aside 

Out of the way when done with, — down you kneel. 

In you're pushed, over you the other drops, 230 

Tight you Ye clipped, whiz, there 's the blade cleaves its best, 

Out trundles body, down flops head on floor. 

And where 's your soul gone ? That, too, I shall find ! 

This kneeling place was red, red, never fear! 

But only slimy-like with paint, not blood, 235 

For why? a decent pitcher stood at hand, 

A broad dish to hold sawdust, and a broom 

By some unnamed utensil, — scraper-rake, — 

Each with a conscious air of duty done. 

Underneath, loungers, — boys and some few men, — 240 

Discoursed this platter, named the other tool. 

Just as, when grooms tie up and dress a steed. 

Boys lounge and look on, and elucubrate ^ 

What the round brush is used for, what the square, — 

So was explained — to me the skill-less then — 245 

The manner of the grooming for next world 

Undergone by Felice What's-his-name. 

There 's no such lovely month in Rome as May — 

May's crescent is no half-moon of red plank. 
And came now tilting o'er the wave i' the west, 250 

One greenish-golden sea, right 'twixt those bars 
Of the engine — I began acquaintance with, 
Understood, hated, hurried from before, 
To have it out of sight and cleanse my soul ! 

' Elucubrate : literally, to study by lamplight, here meaning to study out elabo- 
rately. 



GUIDO. 



413 



Here it is all again, conserved for use : 255 

Twelve hours hence, I may know more, not hate worse. 

That young May-moon-month! Devils of the deep! 

Was not a Pope then Pope as much as now ? 

Used not he chirrup o'er the Merry Tales.^ 

Chuckle, — his nephew so exact the wag 260 

To play a jealous cullion such a trick 

As wins the wife i' the pleasant storv! Well? 

Why do things change ? Wherefore is Rome un-Romed ? 

1 tell you, ere Felice's corpse was cold. 

The Duke, that night, threw wide his palace-doors, 265 

Received the compliments o' the quality 

For justice done him. — bowed and smirked his best, 

And in return passed round a pretty thing, 

A portrait of Felice's sisters self. 

Florid old rogue Albano's - masterpiece. 270 

As — better than virginity in rags — 

Bouncing Europa ^ on the back o' the bull : 

They laughed and took their road the safelier home. 

Ah, but times change, there 's quite another Pope, 

1 do the Duke's deed, take Felice's place. 275 

And, being no Felice, lout and clout, 

Stomach but ill the phrase '' I lost my head!" 

How euphemistic! Lose what? Lose your ring, 

Your snutit"-box. tablets, kerchief! — but,' your head? 

1 learnt the process at an early age ; ' 280 

'T was useful knowledge, in those same old days. 

To know the way a head is set on neck. 

My fencing-master urged " Would \ou excel? 

Rest not content with mere bold give-and-guard. 

Nor pink the antagonist somehow-anvhow! 285 

See me dissect a little, and know your game! 

Only anatomy makes a thrust the thing." 

Oh Cardinal, those lithe live necks of ours! 

Here go the vertebra;, here 's Atlas,* here 

Axts,^ and here the symphyses*' stop short, 290 

So wisely and well, — as, o'er a corpse, we cant, — 

And here's the silver cord which . . . what "s our word? 

' Merry Tales : the " Novelle " of Franco and appearing before her in the form of a 

Sacchetti, 1385-1400. bull carried her off to Crete. 

- Albano : Francesco Albano (1578-1660), *• Atlas : the name given the first cervical 

an Italian painter born at Bologna, whose vertebra carrying the head, 
paintings of the assumption of St. Sebastian = Ajiri's ; the second cervical vertebra, 

are in St. Sebastian church in Rome. « Symphyses : the cartilaginous union of 

' Europa : daughter of Agenor, King of the bones. 
Phojnicia. Jupiter became enamoured of her, 



414 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Depends from the gold bowl/ which loosed (not " lost ") 

Lets us from heaven to hell, — one chop, we're loose! 

" And not much pain i' the process," quoth a sage : 295 

Who told him? Not Felice's ghost, I think! 

Such ''losing" is scarce Mother Nature's mode. 

She fain would have cord ease itself away. 

Worn to a thread by threescore years and ten, 

Snap while we slumber : that seems bearable. 300 

I 'm told one clot of blood extravasate ^ 

Ends one as certainly as Roland's sword,^ — 

One drop of lymph suffused proves Oliver's mace,'* — 

Intruding, either of the pleasant pair, 

On the arachnoid tunic of my brain. 305 

That's Nature's way of loosing cord! — but Art, 

How of Art's process with the engine here. 

When bowl and cord alike are crushed across, 

Bored between, bruised through ? Why, if Fagon's self, 

The French Court's pride, that famed practitioner, 310 

Would pass his cold pale lightning of a knife, 

Pistoja-ware, adroit 'twixt joint and joint, 

With just a " See how facile, gentlefolk! " — 

The thing were not so bad to bear! Brute force 

Cuts as he comes, breaks in, breaks on, breaks out 315 

O' the hard and soft of you : is that the same? 

A lithe snake thrids the hedge, makes throb no leaf: 

A heavy ox sets chests to brier and branch. 

Bursts somehow through, and leaves one hideous hole 

Behind him! 

And why, why must this needs be? 320 

Oh. if men were but good! They are not good, 
Nowise like Peter : people called him rough, 
But if, as I left Rome, I spoke the Saint, 
— ''■ Petrus, quo vadis .^ " * — doubtless, I should hear, 
" To free the prisoner and forgive his fault! 325 

I plucked the absolute dead from God's own bar, 
And raised up Dorcas,^ — why not rescue thee? " 

^Silver cord . . . gold bowl: Ecclesi- thou? " an allusion to the legend that St. Peter 

astes xii. 6. was leaving Rome on the outbreak of the 

^ Extravasate : let out of the proper Neronian persecution, when he met Christ 

vessels. coming towards the city, and addressed Him 

' Roland's sword : Roland the hero of the with the words, " Dotm'ne, quo vadis?" 

"Song of Roland," who was a nephew and " Lord, whither goest Thou ?" The answer 

paladin of Charlemagne's, wielded a trusty ^3iS, " I'enio iterunt cruci/igi," " 'Vo^ome, 

sword called " Durandal." to be crucified again"; whereupon Peter was 

* Oliver's mace : Roland's companion at ashamed and turned back and met his mar 

arms, who always competed with him in tyrdom. 
knightly prowess. ''Dorcas: Acts ix. 36-41. 

' Pctrus, quo vadis: " Peter, whither goest 



GUI DO. 415 

What would cost one such nullifying word? 

If Innocent succeeds to Peter's place, 

Let him think Peter's thought, speak Peter's speech! 330 

I say, he is bound to it : friends, how say you ? 

Concede I be all one bloodguiltiness 

And mystery of murder in the flesh, 

Why should' that fact keep the Pope's mouth shut fast? 

He "execrates my crime. — good ! — sees hell yawn 335 

One inch from the red plank's end which I press, — 

Nothing is better! What's the consequence? 

How should a Pope proceed that knows his cue? 

Why. leave me linger out my minute here. 

Since close on death comes judgment and comes doom, 340 

Not crib at dawn its pittance from a slieep 

Destined ere dewfall to be butcher's-meat! 

Think, Sirs, if I have done you any harm, 

And you require the natural revenge, 

Suppose, and so intend to poison me. 345 

— Just as you take and slip into my draught 

The paper'ful of powder that clears scores. 

You notice on my brow a certain blue : 

How you both overset the wine at once! 

How you both smile! " Our enemy has the plague! 350 

Twelve hours hence he '11 be scraping his bones bare 

Of that intolerable flesh, and die. 

Frenzied with pain : no need for poison here! 

Step aside and enjoy the spectacle! " 

Tender for souls are you. Pope Innocent! 355 

Christ's maxim is — one soul outweighs the world : 

Respite me, save a soul, then, curse the world! 

" No,"' venerable sire, I hear you smirk, 

" No : for Christ's gospel changes names, not things. 

Renews the obsolete, does nothing more! 360 

Our fire-new gospel is re-tinkered law. 

Our mercy, justice. — Jove 's rechristened God, — 

Nay, whereas, in the popular conceit, 

'T is pity that old harsh Law somehow limps, 

Lingers on earth, although Law's day be done, 365 

Else would benignant Gospel interpose. 

Not furtively as now, but bold and frank 

O'erflutter us with healing in her wings. 

Law being harshness. Gospel only love — 

We tell the people, on the contrary, 370 

Gospel takes up the rod which Law lets fall ; 

Mercy is vigilant when justice sleeps! 

Does Law permit a taste of Gospel-grace? 

The secular arm allow the spiritual power 

To act for once? — no compliment so fine 375 



41 6 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

As that our Gospel handsomely turn harsh, 

Thrust victim back on Law the nice and coy !" 

Yes, you do say so, else you would forgive 

Me whom Law does not touch but tosses you! 

Don't think to put on the professional face! 380 

You know what I know : casuist as you are. 

Each nerve must creep, each hair start, sting and stand, 

At such illogical inconsequence! 

Dear my friends, do but see! A murder 's tried. 

There are two parties to the cause : I 'm one, 385 

— Defend myself, as somebody must do : 

I have the best o' the battle : that 's a fact, 

Simple fact, — fancies find no place just now. 

What though half Rome condemned me? Half approved : 

And, none disputes, the luck is mine at last, 390 

All Rome, i' the main, acquitting me : whereon. 

What has the Pope to ask but " How finds Law?" 

" I find," replies Law, " I have erred this while : 

Guilty or guiltless, Guido proves a priest, 

No layman : he is therefore yours, not mine : 395 

I bound him : loose him, you whose will is Christ's! " 

And now what does this Vicar of our Lord, 

Shepherd o' the flock, — one of whose charge bleats sore 

For crook's help from the quag wherein it drowns ? 

Law sutlers him employ the crumpled end : 400 

His pleasure is to turn staff, use the point. 

And thrust the shuddering sheep, he calls a wolf. 

Back and back, down and down to where hell gapes! 

"Guiltless," cries Law — "Guilty" corrects the Pope! 

"Guilty," for the whim's sake! "Guilty," he somehow thinks, 40c 

And anyhow says : 't is truth ; he dares not lie! 

Others should do the lying. That's the cause 

Brings you both here : I ought in decency 

Confess to you that I deserve my fate. 

Am guilty, as the Pope thinks, — ay, to the end, 410 

Keep up the jest, lie on, lie ever, lie 

r the latest gasp of me! What reason. Sirs? 

Because to-morrow will succeed to-day 

For you, though not for me : and if I stick 

Still to the truth, declare with my last breath, 415 

I die an innocent and murdered man, — 

Why, there 's the tongue of Rome will wag apace 

This time to-morrow : don't I hear the talk! 

" So, to the last he proved impenitent? 

Pagans have said as much of martyred saints! 420 

Law demurred, washed her hands of the whole case. 

Prince Somebody said this, Duke Something, that. 



GUIDO. 417 

Doubtless the man "s dead, dead enough, don't fear! 

But, hang it, what if there have been a spice, 

A touch of . . . eh? You see, the Pope 's so old, 425 

Some of us add, obtuse : age never slips 

The chance of shoving youth to face death first! " 

And so on. Therefore to suppress such talk 

You two come here, entreat I tell you lies, 

And end, the edifying way. I end, 430 

Telling the truth! Your self-styled shepherd thieves! 

A thief — and how thieves hate the wolves we know : 

Damage to theft, damage to thrift, all 's one! 

The red hand is sworn foe of the black jaw. 

That 's only natural, that 's right enough : 435 

But why the wolf should compliment the thief 

With shepherd's title, bark out life in thanks. 

And, spiteless, lick the prong that spits him, — eh, 

Cardinal? My Abate, scarcely thus! 

There, let my sheepskin-garb, a curse on 't, go — 440 

Leave my teeth free if I must show my shag! 

Repent? What good shall follow? If I pass 

Twelve hours repenting, will that fact hold fast 

The thirteenth at the horrid dozen's end? 

If I fall forthwith at your feet, gnash, tear, 445 

Foam, rave, to give your story the due grace, 

Will that assist the engine half-way back 

Into its hiding-house? — boards, shaking now, 

Bone against bone, like some old skeleton bat 

That wants, at winter's end, to wake and prey! 450 

Will howling put the spectre back to sleep? 

Ah, but I misconceive your object. Sirs! 

Since I want new life like the creature, — life 

Being done with here, begins i' the world away : 

I shall next have '"Come, mortals, and be judged!" 455 

There's but a minute betwixt this and then : 

So, quick, be sorry since it saves my soul! 

Sirs, truth shall save it, since no lies assist! 

Hear the truth, you, whatever you style yourselves, 

Civilization and society! 460 

Come, one good grapple, I with all the world! 

Dying in cold blood is the desperate thing ; 

The angry heart explodes, bears off in blaze 

The indignant soul, and I 'm combustion-ripe. 

Why, you intend to do your worst with me ! 465 

That "s in your eyes! You dare no more than death, 

And mean no less. I must make up my mind. 

So Pietro, — when I chased him here and there, 

IMorsel by morsel cut away the life 

I loathed, — cried for just respite to confess 470 



4i8 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And save his soul : much respite did I grant! 

Wliy grant me respite who deserve my doom? 

Me — who engaged to play a prize, fight you, 

Knowing your arms, and foil you, trick for trick, 

At rapier-fence, your match and, maybe, more. 475 

I knew that if I chose sin certain sins. 

Solace my lusts out of the regular way 

Prescribed me, I should find you in the path, 

Have to try skill with a redoubted foe ; 

You would lunge, I would parry, and make end. 480 

At last, occasion of a murder comes : 

We cross blades, I, for all my brag, break guard. 

And in goes the cold iron at my breast, 

Out at my back, and end is made of me. 

You stand confessed the adroiter swordsman, — ay, 485 

But on your triumph you increase, it seems. 

Want more of me than lying fiat on face : 

I ought to raise my ruined head, allege 

Not simply I pushed worse blade o' the pair, 

But my antagonist dispensed with steel! 490 

There was no passage of arms, you looked me low. 

With brow and eye abolished cut and thrust 

Nor used the vulgar weapon! This chance scratch, 

This incidental hurt, this sort of hole 

r the heart of me? I stumbled, got it so! 495 

Fell on my own sword as a bungler may! 

Yourself proscribe such heathen tools, and trust 

To the naked virtue : it was virtue stood 

Unarmed and awed me, — on my brow there burned 

Crime out so plainly intolerably red, 500 

That I was fain to cry — " Down to the dust 

With me, and bury there brow, brand and all!" 

Law had essayed the adventure. — but what "s Law ? 

Morality exposed the Gorgon shield!^ 

Morality and Religion conquer me. 505 

If Law sufficed would you come here, entreat 

1 supplement law, and confess forsooth ? 

Did not the Trial show things plain enough ? 

•' Ah, but a word of the man's very self 

Would somehow put the keystone in its place 510 

And crown the arch! " Then take the word you want! 

I say that, long ago, when things began. 

All the world made agreement, such and such 

' Gorgon shield : the shield worn by the gons, and which had power to turn her foes to 
chaste Minerva, on which was the snaky head stone with one look upon it. 
of the Medusa, most deadly of the three Gor- 



CUIDO. 419 

Were pleasure-giving profit-bearing acts, 

But henceforth extra-legal, nor to be : 515 

You must not kill the man whose death would please 

And profit you, unless his life stop yours 

Plainly, and need so be put aside : 

Get tlie thing by a public course, by law, 

Only no private' bloodshed as of old! 520 

All of us. for the good of every one. 

Renounced such license and conformed to law : 

Who breaks law, breaks pact therefore, helps himself 

To pleasure and profit over and above the due. 

And must pay forfeit, — pain beyond his share : 525 

For, pleasure being the sole good in the world. 

Any one's pleasure turns to some one's pain. 

So, law must watch for every one, — say we, 

Who call things wicked that give too much joy. 

And nickname mere reprisal, envy makes, 530 

Punishment : quite right! thus the world goes round. 

1, being well aware such pact there was, 

1. in my time who found advantage come 

Of law's observance and crime's penalty, — 

Who, but for wholesome fear law bred in friends, 535 

Had doubtless given example long ago, 

Furnished forth some friend's pleasure with my pain, 

And, by my death, pieced out his scanty life, — 

I could not, for that foolish life of me. 

Help risking law's infringement, — I broke bond, 540 

And needs must pay price, — wherefore, here's my head. 

Flung with a flourish! . But, repentance too? 

But pure and simple sorrow for law's breach 

Rather than blunderer's-ineptitude? 

Cardinal, no! Abate, scarcely thus! 545 

"T is the fault, not that I dared try a fall 

With Law and straightway am found undermost. 

But that I failed to see, above man's law, 

God's precept you, the Christians, recognize ? 

Colly my cow! Don't fidget. Cardinal! 550 

Abate, cross your breast and count your beads 

And exorcize the devil, for here he stands 

And stiflTens in the bristly nape of neck. 

Daring you drive him hence! You, Christians both? 

I say, if ever was such faith at all 555 

Born in the world, by your community 

Suffered to live its little tick of time, 

'T is dead of age, now, ludicrously dead ; 

Honor its ashes, if you be discreet. 

In epitaph only! For, concede its death, 560 

Allow extinction, you may boast unchecked 



420 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

What feats the thuig did in a crazy land 

At a fabulous epoch, — treat your faith, that way, 

Just as you treat your relics : " Here 's a shred 

Of saintly flesh, a scrap of blessed bone, 565 

Raised King Cophetua,^ who was dead, to life 

In Mesopotamy twelve centuries since, 

Such was its virtue ! " — twangs the Sacristan, 

Holding the shrine-box up, with hands like feet 

Because of gout in every finger joint : 570 

Does he bethink him to reduce one knob, 

Allay one twinge by touching what he vaunts? 

I think he half uncrooks fist to catch fee, 

But, for the grace, the quality of cure, — 

Cophetua was the man put that to proof! 575 

Not otherwise, your faith is shrined and shown 

And shamed at once : you banter while you bow ! 

Do you dispute this? Come, a monster-laugh, 

A madman's laugh, allowed his Carnival 

Later ten days than when all Rome, but he, 580 

Laughed at the candle-contest : mine's alight, 

'T is just it sputter till the puff o' the Pope 

End it to-morrow and the world turn Ash. 

Come, thus I wave a wand and bring to pass 

In a moment, in the twinkle of an eye, 585 

What but that — feigning everywhere grows fact. 

Professors turn possessors, realize 

The faith they play with as a fancy now, 

And bid it operate, have full effect 

On every circumstance of life, to-day, 590 

In Rome, — faith's flow set free at fountain-head! 

Now, you '11 own, at tliis present, when I speak, 

Before I work the wonder, there 's no man 

Woman or child in Rome, faith's fountain-head, 

But might, if each were minded, realize 595 

Conversely unbelief, faith's opposite — 

Set it to work on life unflinchingly, 

Yet give no symptom of an outward change: 

Why should things change because men disbelieve 

What 's incompatible, in the whited tomb, 600 

With bones and rottenness one inch below? 

What saintly act is done in Rome to-day 

But might be prompted by the devil, — " is " 

I say not, — "has been, and again may be, — " 

I do say, full i' the face o' the crucifix 605 

You try to stop my mouth with ! Off with it ! 

'^ King Cophetua : evidently another Co- beggar-maid, and probably an original instance 
phetua than he of Africa who married the of Browning's. 



GUI DO. 421 

Look in your own heart, if your soul have eyes! 

You shall see reason why, though faith were tied, 

Unbelief still might work the wires and move 

Man, the machine, to play a faithful part. 610 

Preside your college, Cardinal, in your cape, 

Or, — having got above his head, grown Pope, — 

Abate, gird your loins and wash my feet! 

Do you suppose 1 am at loss at all 

Why you crook, why you cringe, why fast or feast? 615 

Praise, blame, sit, stand, lie or go! — all of it, 

In each of you, purest unbelief may prompt, 

And wit explain to who has eyes to see. 

But, lo, I \vave wand, make the false the true! 

Here's Rome believes in Christianity! 620 

What an explosion, how the fragments fly 

Of what was surface, mask and make-believe! 

Begin now, — look at this PopeVhalberdier 

In wasp-like black and yellow foolery! 

He, doing duty at the corridor, _ 625 

Wakes from a muse and stands convinced of sin! 

Down he flings halbert, leaps the passage-length, 

Pushes into the presence, pantingly 

Submits the extreme peril of the case 

To the Pope's self, — whom in the world beside? — 630 

And the Pope breaks talk with ambassador, 

Bids aside bishop, wills the whole world wait 

Till he secure that prize, outweighs the world, 

A soul, relieve the sentry of his qualm! 

His Altitude the Referendary, — 635 

Robed right, and ready for the usher's word 

To pay devoir, — is, of all times, just then 

"Ware of a master-stroke of argument 

Will cut the spinal cord . . . ugh, ugh! ... I mean, 

Paralvze Molinism for evermore! 640 

Straight he leaves lobby, trundles, two and two, 

Down steps to reach home, write, if but a word 

Shall end the impudence : he leaves who likes 

Go pacify the Pope : there's Christ to serve! 

How otherwise would men display their zeal? 645 

If the same sentry had the least surmise 

A powder-barrel 'neath the pavement lay 

In neighborhood with what might prove a match, 

Meant to blow sky-high Pope and presence both — 

Would he not break through courtiers, rank and file, 650 

Bundle up, bear off and save body so, 

The Pope, no matter for his priceless soul? 

There 's no fool's-freak here, naught to soundly swinge, 

Only a man in earnest, you '11 so praise 



422 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And pay and prate about, that earth shall ring! 655 

Had thought possessed the Referendary tiP 

His jewel-case at home was left ajar, ■ 

What would be wrong in running, robes awry. 

To be beforehand with the pilferer? 

What talk then of indecent haste ? Which means, 660 

That both these, each in his degree, would do j| 

Just that, — for a comparative nothing's sake, * 

And thereby gain approval and reward, — 

Which, done for what Christ says is worth the world, 

Procures the doer curses, cuffs and kicks. 665 

I call such difference 'twixt act and act. 

Sheer lunacy unless your truth on lip 

Be recognized a lie in heart of you! 

How do you all act, promptly or in doubt, 

When there's a guest poisoned at supper-time 670 

And he sits chatting on with spot on cheek? 

"Pluck him by the skirt, and round him in the ears. 

Have at him by the beard, warn anyhow!" 

Good, and this other friend that 's cheat and thief 

And dissolute, — go stop the devil's feast, 675 

Withdraw him from the imminent hell-fire! 

Why, for your life, you dare not tell your friend 

"You lie, and I admonish you for Christ!" 

Who yet dare seek that same man at the Mass 

To warn him — on his knees, and tinkle ^ near, — 680 

He left a cask a-tilt, a tap unturned. 

The Trebbian "^ running : what a grateful jump 

Out of the Church rewards your vigilance! 

Perform that self-same service just a thought 

More maladroitly, — since a bishop sits 685 

At function ! — and he budges not, bites lip. — 

" You see my case : how can I quit my post ? 

He has an eye to any such default. 

See to it, neighbor, I beseech your love!" 

He and you know the relative worth of things, 690 

What is permissible or inopportune. 

Contort your brows! You know I speak the truth : 

Gold is called gold, and dross called dross, i' the Book : 

Gold you let lie and dross pick up and prize! 

— Despite your muster of some fifty monks 695 

And nuns a-maundering here and mumping there, 

Who could, and on occasion would, spurn dross, 

Clutch gold, and prove their faith a fact so far, — 

I grant you! Fifty times the number squeak 

^ Tinkle: the ringing of the bell which ^ Trebbian: wine from Trevi. 

denotes the elevation of the Host. 



GUIDO. 423 

And gibber in the madiiouse — firm of faith, 700 

This fellow, that his nose supports the moon ; 

The other, that his straw hat crowns him Pope: 

Does that prove all tiie world outside insane? 

Do fifty miracle-mongers match the mob 

That acts on the frank faithless principle, 705 

Born-baptized-and-bred Christian-atheists, each 

With just as much a right to judge as you, — 

As many senses in his soul, and nerves 

r neck of him as I, — whom, soul and sense, 

Neck and nerve, you abolish presently, — 710 

I being the unit in creation now 

Who pay the Maker, in this speech of mine, 

A creature's duty, spend my last of breath 

In bearing witness, even by my worst fault, 

To the creature's obligation, absolute, 715 

Perpetual : my worst fault protests, " The faith 

Claims all of me : I would give all she claims. 

But for a spice of doubt : the risk 's too rash : 

Double or quits, I play, but, all or naught, 

Exceeds my courage : tlierefore, I descend 720 

To the next faith with no dubiety — 

Faith in the present life, made last as long 

And prove as full of pleasure as may hap, 

Whatever pain it cause the world." I 'm wrong? 

I "ve had my life, whate'er I lose : I 'm right? 725 

I "ve got the single good there was to gain. 

Entire faith, or else complete unbelief! 

Aught between has my loathing and contempt, 

Mine and God's also, doubtless : ask yourself, 

Cardinal, where and how you like a man! 730 

Why, either with your feet upon his head. 

Confessed your caudatory.^ or, at large, 

The stranger in the crowd who caps to you 

But keeps his distance, — wliy should he presume? 

You want no hanger-on and droi)per-off, 735 

Now yours, and now not yours but quite his own, 

According as the sky looks black or bright. 

Just so I capped to and kept off from faith — 

You promised trudge behind through fair and foul, 

Yet leave i' the lurch at the first spit of rain. 740 

Who holds to faith whenever rain begins? 

What does the father when his son lies dead. 

The merchant when his money-bags take wing, 

The politician whom a rival ousts? 

No case but has its conduct, faith prescribes : 745 

1 Caudatory : one of a train, a dependent. 



424 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Where 's the obedience that shall edify ? 

Why, they laugh frankly in the face of faith 

And' take the natural course, — this rends his hair 

Because his child is taken to God's breast. 

That gnashes teeth and raves at loss of trash 750 

Which rust corrupts and thieves break through and steal, 

And this, enabled to inherit earth 

Through meekness, curses till your blood runs cold! 

Down they all drop to my low level, rest 

Heart upon dungy earth that 's warm and soft, 755 

And let who please attempt the altitudes. 

Each playing prodigal son of heavenly sire, 

Turning his nose up at the fatted calf, 

Fain to fill belly with the husks, we swine 

Did eat by born depravity of taste ! 760 

Enough of the hypocrites. But you. Sirs, you — 

Who never budged from litter where I lay, 

And buried snout i' the draff-box while I fed, 

Cried amen to my creed's one article — 

"Get pleasure, 'scape pain, — give your preference 765 

To the immediate good, for time is brief. 

And death ends good and ill and everything! 

What 's got is gained, what 's gained soon is gained twice. 

And, — inasmuch as faith gains most, — feign faith!" 

So did we brother-like pass word about : 770 

— You, now, — like bloody drunkards but half-drunk, 

Who fool men yet perceive men find them fools, — 

Vexed that a titter gains the gravest mouth, — 

O' the sudden you must needs re-introduce 

Solemnity, straight sober undue mirth 775 

By a blow dealt me your boon companion here 

Who, using the old license, dreamed of harm 

No more than snow in harvest : yet it falls! 

You check the merriment effectually 

By pushing your abrupt machine i' the midst, 780 

Making me Rome's example : blood for wine! 

The general good needs that you chop and change! 

I may dislike the hocus-pocus, — Rome, 

The laughter-loving people, won't they stare 

Chap-fallen! — while serious natures sermonize 785 

" The magistrate, he beareth not the sword 

In vain ; who sins may taste its edge, we see! " 

Why my sin, drunkards? Where have I abused 

Liberty, scandalized you all so much? 

Who called me, who crooked finger till I came, 790 

Fool that I was, to join companionship? 

I knew my own mind, meant to live my life, 



GUIDO. 425 

Elude your envy, or else make a stand, 

Take my own part and sell you my life dear. 

But it was •' Fie! No prejudice in the world 795 

To the proper manly instinct! Cast your lot 

Into our lap, one genius ruled our births. 

We "11 compass joy by concert ; take with us 

The regular irregular way i' the wood ; 

You'll miss no game through riding breast by breast, 800 

In this preserve, the Churcli's park and pale. 

Rather than outside where the world lies waste!" 

Come, if you said not that, did you say this? 

Give plain and terrible warning, " Live, enjoy? ^ 

Such life begins in death and ends in hell! 805 

Dare you bid us assist your sins, us priests 

Who hurry sin and sinners from the earth? 

No such delight for us, why then for you? 

Leave earth, seek heaven or find its opposite!" 

Had vou so warned me, not in lying words 810 

But veritable deeds with tongues of flame, 

That had been fair, that might have struck a man. 

Silenced the squabble between soul and sense. 

Compelled him to make mind up, take one course 

Or the other, peradventure ! — wrong or right, 815 

Foolish or wise, you would have been at least 

Sincere, no question, — forced me choose, indulge 

Or else renounce my instincts, still play wolf 

Or find my way submissive to your fold. 

Be red-crossed on my fleece, one sheep the more. 820 

But you as good as bade me wear sheep's wool 

Over woli"s skin, suck blood and hide the noise 

By mimicry of something like a bleat, — 

Whence it comes that because, despite my care, 

Because I smack my tongue too loud for once, 825 

Drop baaing, here's the village up in arms! 

Have at the wolf's throat, you who hate the breed! 

Oh, were it only open yet to choose — 

One little time more — whether I'd be free 

Your foe, or subsidized your friend forsooth! 830 

Should not you get a growl through the white fangs 

In answer to your beckoning! Cardinal, 

Abate, managers o' the multitude, 

1 'd turn your gloved hands to account, be sure! 

You should manipulate the coarse rough mob : 835 

'T is you I 'd deal directly with, not them, — 

Using your fears : why touch the thing myself 

When I could see you hunt, and then cry " Shares! 

Quarter the carcase or we quarrel ; come. 

Here 's the world ready to see justice done!" 840 



426 THE RING AiVD THE BOOK. 

Oh, it had been a desperate game, but game 

Wherein the winner's chance were worth the pains ! 

We 'd try conclusions ! — at the worst, what worse 

Than this Mannaia-machine, each minute's talk 

Helps push an inch the nearer me? Fool, fool! 845 

You understand me and forgive, sweet Sirs? 
I blame you, tear my hair and tell my woe — 
All's but a flourish, figure of rhetoric! 
One must try each expedient to save life. 

One makes fools look foolisher fifty-fold 850 

By putting in their place men wise like you, 
To take the full force of an argument 
Would buffet their stolidity in vain. 
If you should feel aggrieved by the mere wind 
O' the blow that means to miss you and maul them, 855 

That's my success! Is it not folly, now, 
To say with folk, " A plausible defence — 
We see through notwithstanding, and reject"? 
Reject the plausible they do, these fools, 

Who never even made pretence to show 860 

One point beyond its plausibility 
In favor of the best belief they hold! 
" Saint Somebody-or-other raised the dead : " 
Did he? How do you come to know as much? 
" Know it, what need? The story 's plausible, 865 

Avouched for by a martyrologist. 
And why should good men sup on cheese and leeks 
On such a saint's day, if there were no saint ? " 
I praise the wisdom of these fools, and straight 
Tell them my story — ''plausible, but false! " 870 

False, to be sure! What else can story be 
That runs — a young wife tired of an old spouse. 
Found a priest whom she fled away with, — both 
Took their full pleasure in the two-days' flight. 
Which a gray-headed grayer-hearted pair, 875 

(Whose best boast was, their life had been a lie) 
Helped for the love they bore all liars. Oh, 
Here incredulity begins! Indeed? 
Allow then, were no one point strictly true, 
There 's that i' the tale might seem like truth at least 880 

To the unlucky husband, — jaundiced patch — 
Jealousy maddens people, why not him? 
Say, he was maddened, so forgivable! 
Humanity pleads that though the wife were true. 
The priest true, and the pair of liars true, 885 

^1 They might seem false to one man in the world! 
/ A thousand gnats make up a serpent's sting. 



GUIDO. 427 

And many sly soft stimulants to wrath 

Compose a formidable wrong at last 

That gets called easily by some one name 8go 

Not applicable to the single parts, 

And so draws down a general revenge, 

Excessive if you take crime, fault by fault. 

Jealousy! I have known a score of plays. 

Were listened to and laughed at in my time 895 

As like the everyday-life on all sides, 

Wherein the husband, mad as a March hare. 

Suspected all the world contrived his shame. 

What did the wife? The wife kissed both eyes blind. 

Explained away ambiguous circumstance, 900 

And while she held him captive by the hand. 

Crowned his head, — you know what 's the mockery, — 

By half her body behind the curtain. That 's 

Nature now! That's the subject of a piece 

I saw in Vallombrosa Convent,' made 905 

Expressly to teach men what marriage was! 

But say "Just so did I misapprehend, 

Imagine she deceived me to my face," 

And that's pretence too easily seen through! 

All those eyes of all husbands in all plays, 910 

At stare like one expanded peacock-tail. 

Are laughed at for pretending to be keen 

W^hile horn-blind : but the moment I step forth — 

Oh, I must needs o' the sudden prove a lynx 

And look the heart, that stone-wall, through and through! 915 

Such an eye, God's may be, — not yours nor mine. 

Yes, presently . . . what hour is fleeting now ? 

When you cut earth away from under me, 

I shall be left alone with, pushed beneath 

Some such an apparitional dread orb 920 

As the eye of God, since such an eye there glares : 

I fancy it go filling up the void 

Above my mote-self it devours, or what 

Proves — wrath, immensity wreaks on nothingness. 

Just how I felt once, couching through the dark, 925 

Hard by Vittiano ; young I was, and gay. 

And wanting to trap fieldfares : first a spark 

Tipped a bent, as a mere dew-globule might 

.Any stiff grass-stalk on the meadow, — this 

Grew fiercer, flamed out full, and proved the sun. 930 

1 i'allonibrosa Convent : the famous mon- be likely to approve such a piece as Browning 
astery near Florence, founded about 1650 by indicates. 
a repentant profligate of high rank who would 



428 THE RIXG AND THE BOOK. 

What do I want with proverbs, precepts here? 

Away with man ! What shall I say to God ? 

This, if I find the tongue and keep the mind — 

" Do Thou wipe out the being of me, and smear 

This soul from off Thy white of things. I blot! 935 

I am one huge and sheer mistake, — whose fault? 

Not mine at least, who did not make myself! "" 

Some one declares my wife excused me so! 

Perhaps she knew what argument to use. 

Grind your teeth, Cardinal : Abate, writhe ! 940 

What else am I to cry out in my rage, 

Unable to repent one particle 

O' the past? Oh. how I wish some cold wise man 

Would dig beneath the surface which you scrape. 

Deal with the depths, pronounce on my desert 945 

Groundedly! I want simple sober sense, 

That asks, before it finishes with a dog, 

Who taught the dog that trick you hang him for? 

You both persist to call that act a crime. 

Which sense would call . . . yes, I maintain it, Sirs, . . . 

A blunder! At the worst, I stood in doubt 951 

On cross-road, took one path of many paths : 

It leads to the red thing, we all see now. 

But nobody saw at first : one primrose-patch 

In bank, one singing-bird in bush, the less, 955 

Had warned me from such wayfare : let me prove! 

Put me back to the cross-road, start afresh ! 

Advise me when I take the first false step! 

Give me my wife : how should I use my wife. 

Love her or hate her? Prompt my action now! 960 

There she is. there she stands alive and pale. 

The thirteen-years'-old child, with milk for blood, 

Pompilia Comparini. as at first. 

Which first is only four brief years ago! 

I stand too in the little ground-floor room 965 

O' the father's house at Via Vittoria: see! 

Her so-called mother. — one arm round the waist 

O' the child to keep her from the toys, let fall 

At wonder I can live yet look so grim, — 

Ushers her in, with deprecating wave 970 

Of the other, — and she fronts me loose at last. 

Held only by the mother's finger-tip. 

Struck dumb. — for she was white enough before! ■ 

She eyes me with those frightened balls of black, 

As heifer — the old simile comes pat — 975 

Eyes tremblingly the altar and the priest. 

The amazed look, all one insuppressive prayer, — 

Might she but breathe, set free as heretofore, 



GUI no. 429 

Have this cup leave her lips unblistered, bear 

Any cross anywhither anyhow, 9^o 

So 'but alone,' so but apart from me ! 

You are touched? So am I, quite otherwise, 

If t is with pity. I resent my wrong. 

Being a man : I only show man's soul 

Through man's flesh : she sees mine, it strikes her thus! 985 

Is that attractive? To a youth perhaps — 

Calf-creature, one-part boy to three-parts girl. 

To whom it is a flattering novelty 

That he, men use to motion from their path, 

Can thus impose, thus terrify in turn 990 

A chit whose terror shall be changed apace 

To bliss unbearable when grace and glow, 

Prowess and pride descend the throne and touch 

Esther in all that pretty tremble, cured 

By the dove o' the sceptre! But myself am old, 995 

O' the wane at least, in all things : what do you say 

To her who frankly thus confirms my doubt? 

I am past the prime, I scare the woman-world, 

Done-with that way : you like this piece of news? 

A little saucy rose-bud minx can strike 1000 

Death-damp into the breast of doughty king 

Though \ were French Louis, — soul I understand, — 

Saying, by gesture of repugnance, just 

" Sire, you are regal, puissant and so forth. 

But — young you have been, are not. nor will be! " 1005 

In vain the mother nods, winks, bustles up, 

"Count, girls incline to mature worth like you! 

As for Pompilia, what 's flesh, fish, or fowl 

To one who apprehends no difference. 

And would accept you even were you old loio 

As you are . . . youngish by her father's side ? 

Trim but your beard a little, thin your bush 

Of eyebrow ; and for presence, portliness, 

And decent gravity, you beat a boy ! " 

Deceive yourself one minute, if you may, 1015 

In presence of the child that so loves age. 

Whose neck writhes, cords itself against your kiss. 

Whose hand you wring stark, rigid with despair! 

Well, I resent this ; 1 am young in soul, 

Nor old in body, — thews and sinews here, — 1020 

Though the vile surface be not smooth as once, — 

Far beyond that first wheelwork which went wrong 

Through the untempered iron ere 't was proof: 

I am the wTought man worth ten times the crude, 

Would woman see what this declines to see, 1025 

Declines to say " I see," — the officious word 



430 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

That makes the thing, pricks on the soul to shoot 

New fire into the half-used cinder, flesh ! 

Therefore 't is she begins with wronging me, 

Who cannot but bSgin with hating her. 1030 

Our marriage follows : there she stands again! 

Why do I laugh ? Why, in the very gripe 

O' the jaws of death's gigantic skull, do I 

Grin back his grin, make sport of my own pangs? 

Why from each clashing of his molars, ground 1035 

To make the devil bread from out my grist, 

Leaps out a spark of mirth, a hellish toy? 

Take notice we are lovers in a church. 

Waiting the sacrament to make us one 

And happy! Just as bid, she bears herself, 1040 

Comes and kneels, rises, speaks, is silent, — goes: 

So have I brought my horse, by word and blow. 

To stand stock-still and front the fire he dreads. 

How can I other than remember this, 

Resent the very obedience? Gain thereby? 1045 

Yes, I do gain my end and have my will, — 

Thanks to whom? When the mother speaks the word, 

She obeys it — even to enduring me! 

There had been compensation in revolt — 

Revolt 's to quell : but martyrdom rehearsed, 1050 

But predetermined saintship for the sake 

O' the mother? — " Go! " thought I, " we meet again! " 

Pass the next weeks of dumb contented death. 

She lives, — wakes up, installed in house and home, 

Is mine, mine all day-long, all night-long mine. 1055 

Good folk begin at me with open mouth 

"Now, at lea'st, reconcile the child to life! 

Study and make her love . . . that is, endure 

The . . . hem! the . . . all of you though somewhat old, 

Till it amount to something, in her eye, 1060 

As good as love, better a thousand times, — 

Since nature helps the woman in such strait, 

Makes passiveness her pleasure : failing which. 

What if you give up boy-and-girl-fools'-play 

And go on to wise friendship all at once? 1065 

Those boys and girls kiss themselves cold, you know, 

Toy themselves tired and slink aside full soon 

To friendship, as they name satiety : 

Thither go you and wait their coming! " Thanks, 

Considerate advisers, — but, fair play! 1070 

Had you and I, friends, started fair at first 

We, keeping fair, might reach it. neck by neck, 

This blessed goal, wfienever fate so please : 

But why am I to miss the daisied mile 



GUI DO. 431 

The course begins with, why obtain the dust 1075 

Of the end precisely at the starting-point? 

Whv quatTHfe's cup blown free of all the beads, 

The bright red froth wherein our beard should steep 

Before our mouth essay the black o' the wine? 

Foolish, the love-tit? Let me prove it such 1080 

Like you, before like you I puff things clear! 

" The' best 's to come, no rapture but content! 

Not love's first glory but a sober glow, 

Not a spontaneous outburst in pure boon, 

So much as, gained by patience, care and toil, 1085 

Proper appreciation and esteem!" 

Go preach that to your nephews, not to me 

Who, tired i' the midway of my life, would stop 

And take my tirst refreshment, pluck a rose : 

What's this' coarse woolly hip. worn smooth of leaf, 1090 

You counsel I go plant in garden-plot, 

Water with tears, manure with sweat and blood. 

In confidence the seed shall germinate 

And, for its very best, some far-off day. 

Grow big, and blow me out a dog-rose bell? 1095 

Why must your nephews begin breathing spice 

O" the hundred-petalled Provence prodigy ? 

Nay, more and worse, — would such my root bear rose — 

Prove really flower and favorite, not the kind 

That's queen, but those three leaves that make one cup 1 100 

And hold the hedge-bird's breakfast, — then indeed 

The prize though poor would pay the care and toil! 

Respect we Nature that makes least as most, 

Marvellous in the minim! But this bud. 

Bit through and burned black by the tempter's tooth, 1 105 

This bloom whose best grace was the slug outside 

And the wasp inside its bosom. — call you " rose " ? 

Claim no immunity from a weed's fate 

For the horrible present! What you call my wife 

I call a nullity in female shape, 11 10 

Vapid disgust, soon to be pungent plague. 

When mixed with, made confusion and a curse 

By two abominable nondescripts. 

That father and that mother : think you see 

The dreadful bronze our boast, we Aretines, 1 1 15 

The Etruscan monster.^ the three-headed thing, 

Bellerophon's foe! How name you the whole beast? 

You choose to name the body from one head, 

' Etruscan monster : a relic of Etruscan phon, mounted on Pegasus, the winged horse, 
art at Arezzo, representing the fabulous Chi- destroyed, 
mxra, the three-headed brute which Bellero- 



432 THE RING AN'^D THE BOOK. 

That of the simple kid which droops the eye, 

Hangs the neck and dies tenderly enough : 1120 

I rather see the griesly Hon belch 

Flame out i' the midst, the serpent writhe her rings, 

Grafted into the common stock for tail. 

And name the brute, Chim^era which I slew! 

How was there ever more to be — (concede 1 1 25 

My wife's insipid harmless nullity) — 

Dissociation from that pair of plagues — 

That mother with her cunning and her cant — 

The eyes with first their twinkle of conceit, 

Then, dropped to earth in mock-demureness, — now, 11 30 

The smile self-satisfied from ear to ear. 

Now, the prim pursed-up mouth's protruded lips, 

With deferential duck, slow swing of head. 

Tempting the sudden fist of man too much, — 

That owl-like screw of lid and rock of ruff ! 1 135 

As for the father, — Cardinal, you know 

The kind of idiot ! — such are rife in Rome, 

But they wear velvet commonly ; good fools. 

At the end of life, to furnish forth young folk 

Who grin and bear with imbecility : 1140 

Since the stalled ass, the joker, sheds from jaw 

Corn, in the joke, for those who laugh or starve. 

But what say we to the same solemn beast 

Wagging his ears and wishful of our pat. 

When turned, with holes in hide and bones laid bare, 1145 

To forage for himself i' the waste o' the world. 

Sir Dignity i' the dumps? Pat him? We drub 

Self-knowledge, rather, into frowzy pate, 

Teach Pietro to get trappings or go hang! 

Fancy this quondam oracle in vogue 11 50 

At Via Vittoria, this personified 

Authority when time was, — Pantaloon 

Flaunting his tom-fool tawdry just the same 

As if Ash-Wednesday were mid-Carnival ! 

That's the extreme and unforgivable 11 55 

Of sins, as I account such. Have you stooped 

For your own ends to bestialize yourself 

By flattery of a fellow of this stamp? 

The ends obtained or else shown out of reach, 

He goes on, takes the flattery for pure truth. — 1 160 

"You love, and honor me, of course : what next?" 

What, but the trifle of the stabbing, friend? — 

Which taught you how one worships when the shrine 

Has lost the relic that we bent before. 

Angry! And how could I be otherwise? 1 165 

'T is plain : this pair of old pretentious fools 



GUIDO. 



433 



Meant to fool me : it happens, I fooled them. 

Why could not these who sought to buy and sell 

Me, — when they found themselves were bought and sold, 

Make up their mind to the proved rule of right, 1 170 

Be chattel and not chapman any more? 

Miscalculation has its consequence ; 

But when the shepherd crooks a sheep-like thing 

And meaning to get wool, dislodges fleece 

And finds tlie veritable wolf beneath, 1175 

(How that staunch image serves at every turn!) 

Does he, by way of being politic. 

Pluck the first whisker grimly visible? 

Or rather grow in a trice all gratitude, 

Protest this sort-of-what-one-might-name sheep 1 180 

Beats the old other curly-coated kind. 

And shall share board and bed, if so it deign. 

With its discoverer, like a royal ram? 

Ay, thus, with chattering teeth and knocking knees, 

W'ould wisdom treat the adventure! these, forsooth, 1185 

Tried whisker-plucking, and so found what trap 

The whisker kept perdue, two rows of teeth — 

Sharp, as too late the prying fingers felt. 

What would you have? The fools transgress, the fools 

Forthwith receive appropriate punishment: 11 90 

They first insult me. I return the blow, 

There follows noise enough : four hubbub months, 

Now hue and cry, now whimpering and wail — 

A perfect goose-yard cackle of complaint 

Because 1 do not gild the geese their oats, — 1195 

I have enough of noise, ope wicket wide, 

Sweep out the couple to go whine elsewhere. 

Frightened a little, hurt in no respect. 

And am just taking thought to breathe again. 

Taste the sweet sudden silence all about, 1200 

When, there they raise it, the old noise I know. 

At Rome i' the distance! "What, begun once more? 

Wliine on, wail ever, 't is the loser's right!" 

But eh, what sort of voice grows on the wind? 

Triumph it sounds and no complaint at all! 1205 

And triumph it is. My boast was premature : 

The creatures, I turned forth, clapped wing and crew 

Fighting-cock-fashion, — they had filched a pearl 

From dung-heap, and might boast with cause enough! 

I was defrauded of all bargained for: 1210 

You know, the Pope knows, not a soul but knows 

My dowry was derision, my gain — muck. 

My wife, (the Church declared my flesh and blood) 

The nameless bastard of a common whore : 



434 THE RnVG AND THE BOOK. 

My old name turned henceforth to . . . shall I say 121 5 

'' He that received the ordure in his face ? " 
And they who planned this wrong, performed this wrong, 
And then revealed this wrong to the wide world, 
-- Rounded myself in the ears with my own wrong. — 

-'i Why, these were (note hell's lucky malice, now!) 1220 

These were just they who, they alone, could act 
And publish and proclaim their infamv, 
Secure that men would in a breath believe 
Compassionate and pardon them, — for why? 
They plainly were too stupid to invent, 1225 

Too simple to distinguish wrong from right, — 
Inconscious agents they, the silly-sooth. 
Of heaven's retributive justice on the strong 
Proud cunning violent oppressor — me! 

Follow them to their fate and help your best, 1230 

You Rome, Arezzo, foes called friends of me. 
They gave the good long laugh to, at my cost! 
Defray your share o' the cost, since you partook 
The entertainment! Do! — assured the while. 
That not one stab, I dealt to right and left, 1235 

But went the deeper for a fancy — this — 
That each might do me two-fold service, find 
A friend's face at the bottom of each wound, 
And scratch its smirk a little! 

Panciatichi! 
There's a report at Florence, — is it true? — 1240 

That when your relative the Cardinal 
Built, only the other day, that barrack-bulk. 
The palace in Via Larga, someone picked 
From out the street a saucy quip enough 

That fell there from its day's flight through the town, 1245 
About the flat front and the windows wide 
And bulging heap of cornice, — hitched the joke 
Into a sonnet, signed his name thereto. 
And forthwith pinned on post the pleasantry : 
For which he's at the galleys, rowing now 1250 

Up to his waist in water, — just because 
Panciatic and lymphatic rhymed so pat! 
I hope. Sir, those who passed this joke on me 
Were not unduly punished ? What say you. 
Prince of the Church, my patron? Nay, indeed, 1255 

I shall not dare insult your wits so much 
As think this problem difflcult to solve. 
This Pietro and Violante then. I say. 
These two ambiguous insects, changing name 
And nature with the season's warmth or chill. — 1260 

Now, grovelled, grubbing toiling moiling ants, 



GCIDO. 435 

A very synonym of thrift and peace. — 

Anon, with lusty June to prick their heart, 

Soared i' the air. winged (lies for more offence, 

Circled me. buzzed me deaf and stung me blind, 1265 

And stunk me dead with fetor in the face 

Until I stopped the nuisance : there's my crime! 

Pity I did not sutTer them subside 

Into some further shape and final form 

Of execrable life? .Mymasters.no! 1270 

I, by one blow, wisely cut short at once 

Them and their transformations of disgust, 

In the snug little \'illa out of hand. 

'•Grant me confession, give bare time for that!'" — 

Shouted the sinner till his mouth was stopped. 1275 

His life confessed! — that was enough for me. 

Who came to see that he did penance. 'S death ! 

Here 's a coil raised, a pother and for what? 

Because strength, being provoked by weakness, fought 

And conquered, — the world never heard the like! 1280 

Pah, how I spend my breath on them, as if 

"T was their fate troubled me, too hard to range 

Among the right and fit and proper things! 

Ay, but Pompilia, — I await your word, — 

She, unimpeached of crime, unimplicate 1285 

In folly, one of alien blood to these 

I punish, why extend my claim, exact 

Her portion of the penalty? Yes. friends, 

I go too fast : the orator 's at fault : 

Yes, ere I lay her, with your leave, by them 1290 

As she was laid at San Lorenzo late, 

I ought to step back, lead you by degrees, 

Recounting at each step some fresh ot^ence, 

Up to the red bed, — never fear, I will! 

Gaze at her, where I place her, to begin, 1295 

Confound me with her gentleness and worth! 

The horrible pair have tied and left her now. 

She has her husband for her sole concern : 

His wife, the woman fashioned for his help. 

Flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, the bride 1300 

To groom as is the Church and Spouse to Christ : 

There she stands in his presence : " Thy desire 

Shall be to the husband, o'er thee shall he rule!" 

— " Pompilia, who declare that you love God. 

You know who said that : then, desire my love, 1305 

Yield me contentment and be ruled aright! " 

She sits up, she lies down, she comes and goes. 

Kneels at the couch-side, overleans the sill 



436 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

O' the window, cold and pale and mute as stone. 

Strong as stone also. " Well, are they not tied? 1310 

Am I not left, am I not one for all ? 

Speak a word, drop a tear, detach a glance, 

Bless me or curse me of your own accord! 

Is it the ceiling only wants your soul, 

Is worth your eyes? " And then the eyes descend, 13 15 

And do look at me. Is it at the meal? 

" Speak!" she obeys, '• Be silent!" she obeys, 

Counting the minutes till I cry " Depart," 

As brood-bird when you saunter past her eggs. 

Departs she? just the same through door and wall 1320 

I see the same stone strength of white despair. 

And all this will be never otherwise! 

Before, the parents' presence lent her life : 

She could play off her sex's armory. 

Entreat, reproach, be female to my male, 1325 

Try all the shrieking doubles of the hare, 

Go clamor to the Commissary, bid 

The Archbishop hold my hands and stop my tongue, 

And yield fair sport so : but the tactics change. 

The hare stands stock-still to enrage the hound! 1330 

Since that day when she learned she was no child 

Of those she thought her parents, — that their trick 

Had tricked me whom she thought sole trickster late, — 

Why, I suppose she said within herself 

" Then, no more struggle for my parents' sake! 1335 

And, for my own sake, why needs struggle be?" 

But is there no third party to the pact ? 

What of her husband's relish or dislike 

For this new game of giving up the game. 

This worst offence of not offending more? 134° 

I '11 not believe but instinct wrought in this, 

Set her on to conceive and execute 

The preferable plague : how sure they probe — 

These jades, the sensitivest soft of man! 

The long black hair was wound now in a wisp, 1345 

Crowned sorrow better than the wild web late : 

No more soiled dress, 't is trimness triumphs now. 

For how should malice go with negligence? 

The frayed silk looked the fresher for her spite! 

There was an end to springing out of bed, 1350 

Praying me, with face buried on my feet. 

Be hindered of my pastime, — so an end 

To my rejoinder, "What, on the ground at last? 

Vanquished in fight, a supplicant for life ? 

What if I raise you? 'Ware the casting down 1355 

When next you fight me! " Then, she lay there, mine : 



Gi'IDO. 



437 



Now, mine she is if I please wring her neck, — 

A moment of disquiet, working eves. 

Protruding tongue, a long sigh, then no more, — 

As if one killed the horse one could not ride! 1360 

Had I enjoined "Cut oti'the hair!" — why, snap 

The scissors, and at once a yard or so 

Had liuttered in black serpents to the floor : 

LJut till I did enjoin it, how she combs. 

Uncurls and draws out to the complete length, 1365 

Plaits, places the insulting rope on head 

To be an eyesore past dishevelment! 

Is all done? Then sit still again and stare! 

I advise — no one think to bear that look 

Of steady wrong, endured as steadilv 1370 

— Through what sustainment of deluding hope? 

Who is the friend i' the background that notes all? 

Who may come presently and close accounts? 

This self-possession to the uttermost, 

How does it differ in aught, save degree, 1375 

From the terrible patience of God? 

"All which just means. 
She did not love you! " Again the word is launched 
And the fact fronts me! WHiat. you try the wards 
With the true key and the dead lock flies ope ? 
No, it sticks fast and leaves you fumbling still! 1380 

Vou have some fifty servants. Cardinal, — 
Which of them loves 3'ou? Which subordinate 
But makes parade of such officiousness 
That, — if there's no love prompts it, — love, the sham, 
Does twice the service done by love, the true? 1385 

God bless us liars, where 's one touch of truth 
In what we tell the world, or world tells us. 
Of how we love each other? All the same, 
We calculate on word and deed, nor err, — 
Bid such a man do such a loving act, 1390 

Sure of effect and negligent of cause. 
Just as we bid a horse, with cluck of tongue, 
Stretch his legs arch-wise, crouch his saddled back 
To foot-reach of the stirrup — all for love. 
And some for memory of the smart of switch 1395 

On the inside of the foreleg — what care we? 
Yet where "s the bond obliges horse to man 
Like that which binds fast wife to husband? God 
Laid down the law : gave man the brawny arm 
And ball of fist — woman the beardless cheek 1400 

And proper place to suffer in the side : 
Since it is he can strike, let her obey! 
Can she feel no love ? Let her show the more, 



438 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Sham the worse, damn herself praiseworthily! 

Who's that soprano, Rome went mad about 1405 

Last week while I lay rotting in my straw? 

The very jailer gossiped in his praise — 

How, — dressed up like Armida, though a man ; 

And painted to look pretty, though a fright, — 

He still made love so that the ladies swooned. 1410 

Being an eunuch. " Ah, Rinaldo ^ mine! 

But to breathe by thee while Jove slays us both!" 

All the poor bloodless creature never felt. 

Si, do, re, mi, fa, squeak and squall — for what? 

Two gold zecchines - the evening. Here 's my slave, 141 5 

Whose body and soul depend upon my nod, 

Can't falter out the first note in the scale 

For her life! Why blame me if I take the life? 

All women cannot give men love, forsooth! 

No, nor all pullets lay the hen wife eggs — 1420 

Whereat she bids them remedy the fault. 

Brood on a chalk-ball : soon the nest is stocked — 

Otherwise, to the plucking and the spit! 

This wife of mine was of another mood — 

Would not begin the lie that ends with truth, 1425 

Nor feign the love that brings real love about : 

Wherefore 1 judged, sentenced and punished her. 

But why particularize, defend the deed? 

Say that 1 hated her for no one cause 

Beyond my pleasure so to do, — what then? 1430 

Just on as much incitement acts the world. 

All of you! Look and like! You favor one, 

Browbeat another, leave alone a third, — 

Why should you master natural caprice? 

Pure nature! Try : plant elm by ash in file; 1435 

Both unexceptionable trees enough, 

They ought to overlean each other, pair 

At top, and arch across the avenue 

The whole path to the pleasaunce : do they so — 

Or loathe, lie off abhorrent each from each ? 1440 

Lay the fault elsewhere : since we must have faults. 

Mine shall have been, — seeing there 's ill in the end 

Come of my course, — that I fare somehow worse 

For the way I took : my fault ... as God 's my judge, 

I see not where my fault lies, that's the truth! ^445 

I ought . . . oh, ought in my own interest 

Have let the whole adventure go untried, 

This chance by marriage : or else, trying it, 

'^Armida . . . Rinaldo: the lovers in ^Zecchines : a gold coin worth about two 

Tasso's " Jerusalem Delivered," on which dollars and a half, 
operas have been founded. 



GUIDO. 439 

Ought to have turned it to account, some one 

O' the hundred otherwises? Ay, my friend, 1450 

Easy to say, easy to do : step right 

Now you "ve stepped left and stumbled on the thing, 

— The red thing! Doubt I any more than you 

That practice makes man perfect? Give again 

The chance, — same marriage and no other wife, 1455 

Be sure I '11 edify you! That's because 

1 \\\ practised, grown fit guide for Guido's self. 

Vou proffered guidance, — I know, none so well, — 

You laid down law and rolled decorum out, 

From pulpit-corner on the gospel-side, — 1460 

Wanted to make your great experience mine. 

Save me the personal search and pains so : thanks! 

Take your word on life's use? When I take his — 

The muzzled ox that treadeth out the corn, 

Gone blind in padding round and round one path, — 1465 

As to the taste of green grass in the field! 

What do you know o' the world that 's trodden flat 

And salted sterile with your daily dung. 

Leavened into a lump of loathsomeness? 

Take your opinion of the modes of life, 1470 

The aims of life, life's triumph or defeat. 

How to feel, how to scheme, and how to do 

Or else leave undone ? You preached long and loud 

On high-days, "Take our doctrine upon trust! 

Into the mill-house with you! Grind our corn, 1475 

Relish our chaff, and let the green grass grow! " 

I tried chaff, found I famished on such fare, 

So made this mad rush at the mill-house-door. 

Buried my head up to the ears in dew. 

Browsed on the best : for which you brain me, Sirs! 1480 

Be it so. I conceived of life that way, 

And still declare — life, without absolute use 

Of the actual sweet therein, is death, not life. 

Give me, — pay down, — not promise, which is air, — 

Something that's out of life and better still, 1485 

Make sure reward, make certain punishment, 

Entice me, scare me, — I '11 forgo this life ; 

Otherwise, no! — the less that words, mere wind. 

Would cheat me of some minutes while they plague. 

Baulk fulness of revenge here, — blame yourselves 1490 

For this eruption of the pent-up soul 

You prisoned first and played with afterward! 

"Deny myself" meant simply pleasure you. 

The sacred and superior, save the mark! 

You, — whose stupidity and insolence 1495 

I must defer to, soothe at every turn, — 



440 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Whose swine-like snuffling greed and grunting lust 

I had to winlc at or help gratify, — 

While the same passions, — dared they perk in me, 

Me, the immeasurably marked, by God, 1500 

Master of the whole world of such as you, — 

I. boast such passions? 'T was ''Suppress them straight! 

Or stay, we'll pick and choose before destroy. 

Here's wrath in you, a serviceable sword, — 

Beat it into a ploughshare! What 's this long 1505 

Lance-like ambition? Forge a pruning-hook, 

May be of service when our vines grow tall! 

But — sword use swordwise, spear thrust out as spear? 

Anathema! Suppression is the word!" 

My nature, when the outrage was too gross, 15 10 

Widened itself an outlet over-wide 

By way of answer, sought its own relief 

With more of fire and brimstone than you wished. 

All your own doing: preachers, blame yourselves! 

'T is I preach while the hour-glass runs and runs! 15 15 

God keep me patient! All I say just means — 

My wife proved, whether by her fault or mine, — 

That 's immaterial, — a true stumbling-block 

r the way of me her husband. I but plied 

The hatchet yourselves use to clear a path, 1520 

Was politic, played the game you warrant wins. 

Plucked at law's robe a-rustle through the courts, 

Bowed down to kiss divinity's buckled shoe 

Cushioned i' the church : efforts all wide the aim! 

Procedures to no purpose! Then flashed truth. 1525 

The letter kills, the spirit keeps alive 

In law and gospel : there be nods and winks 

Instruct a wise man to assist himself 

In certain matters, nor seek aid at all. 

"Ask money of me," — quoth the clownish saw, — 1530 

"And take my purse! But, — speaking with respect, — 

Need you a solace for the troubled nose ? 

Let everybody wipe his own himself! " 

Sirs, tell me free and fair! Had things gone well 

At the wayside inn : had I surprised asleep 1535 

The runaways, as was so probable. 

And pinned them each to other partridge-wise. 

Through back and breast to breast and back, then bade 

Bystanders witness if the spit, my sword. 

Were loaded with unlawful game for once — 1540 

Would you have interposed to damp the glow 

Applauding me on every husband's cheek? 

Would you have checked the cry "A judgment, see! 



GUIDO. 441 

A warning, note! Be henceforth chaste, ye wives, 

Nor stray beyond your proper precinct, priests!" 1545 

If you had, then your house against itself 

Divides, nor stands your kingdom any more. 

Oh why, why was it not ordained just so? 

Why fell not things out so nor otherwise? 

Ask that particular devil whose task it is 155° 

To trip the all-but-at perfection. — slur 

The line of the painter just where paint leaves off 

And life begins, — put ice into the ode 

O' the poet while he cries " Next stanza — fire!" 

Inscribe all human effort with one word, 1555 

Artistry's haunting curse, the Incomplete! 

Being incomplete, my act escaped success. 

Easy to blame now! Every fool can swear 

To hole in net that held and slipped the fish. 

But, treat my act with fair unjaundiced eye, 1560 

What was there wanting to a masterpiece 

Except the luck that lies beyond a man? 

Mv way with the woman, now proved grossly wrong, 

Just missed of being gravely grandly right 

And making mouths laugh on the other side. 1565 

Do. for the poor obstructed artist's sake, 

Go with him over that spoiled work once more! 

Take only its first flower, the ended act 

Now in the dusty pod, dry and defunct! 

I march to the Villa, and my men with me, 1570 

That evening, and we reach the door and stand. 

I sav . . . no, it shoots through me lightning-like 

While I pause, breathe, my hand upon the latch, 

" Let me forebode! Thus far, too much success : 

I want the natural failure — find it where? 1575 

Which thread will have to break and leave a loop 

r the meshy combination, my brain's loom 

Wove this long while, and now next minute tests? 

Of three that are to catch, two should go free. 

One must : all three surprised. — impossible! 1580 

Beside, I seek three and may chance on six, — 

This neighbor, t' other gossip, — the babe's l)irth 

Brings such to fireside, and folks give them wine, — 

T is late : but when I break in presently 

One will be found outlingering the rest 1585 

For promise of a posset, — one whose shout 

Would raise the dead down in the catacombs. 

Much more the city-watch that goes its round. 

When did I ever turn adroitly up 

To sun some brick embedded in the soil, 1590 

And with one blow crush all three scorpions there? 



442 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Or Pietro or Violante shambles oflf — 

It cannot be but I surprise my wife — 

If only she is stopped and stamped on, good! 

That shall suffice : more is improbable. 1595 

Now I may knock! " And this once for my sake 

The impossible was effected : I called king, 

Queen and knave in a sequence, and cards came. 

All three, three only! So, I had my way, 

Did my deed : so, unbrokenly lay bare 1600 

Each taenia^ that had sucked me dry of juice, 

At last outside me, not an inch of ring 

Left now to writhe about and root itself 

r the heart all powerless for revenge! Henceforth 

I might thrive : these were drawn and dead and damned 1605 

Oh Cardinal, the deep long sigh you heave 

When the load 's off you, ringing as it runs 

All the way down the serpent-stair to hell! 

No doubt the fine delirium flustered me, 

Turned my brain with the influx of success 1610 

As if the sole need now were to wave wand 

And find doors fly wide, — wish and have my will, — 

The rest o' the scheme would care for itself: escape 

Easy enough were that, and poor beside! 

It all but proved so, — ought to quite have proved, 161 5 

Since, half the chances had sufficed, set free 

Anyone, with his senses at command. 

From thrice the danger of my flight. But, drunk, 

Redundantly triumphant, — some reverse 

Was sure to follow! There's no other way 1620 

Accounts for such prompt perfect failure then 

And there on the instant. Any day o' the week, 

A ducat slid discreetly into palm 

O' the mute post-master, while you whisper him — 

How you the Count and certain four your knaves, 1625 

Have just been mauling who was malapert. 

Suspect the kindred may prove troublesome, 

Therefore, want horses in a hurry, — that 

And nothing more secures you any day 

The pick o' the stable! Ye't I try the 'trick, 1630 

Double the bribe, call myself Duke for Count, 

And say the dead man only was a Jew, 

And for my pains find I am dealing just 

With the one scrupulous fellow in all Rome — 

Just this immaculate official stares, 1635 

Sees I want hat on head and sword in sheath, 

Am splashed with other sort of wet than wine, 

' Tcenia : a tape-worm. 



GUIDO. 443 

Shrugs shoulder, puts my hand by, gold and all, 

Stands on the strictness of the rule o" the road! 

'• Where 's the Permission?" Where 's the wretched rag 1640 

With the due seal and sign of Rome's Police. 

To be had for asking, half-an-hour ago? 

"Gone? (Jet another, or no horses hence!'" 

He dares not stop me, we five glare too grim. 

But hinders, — hacks and hamstrings sure enough, 1645 

Gives me some twenty miles of miry road 

More to march in the middle of that night 

Whereof the rough beginning taxed the strength 

O" the youngsters, much more mine, both soul and flesh, 

Who had to think as well as act : dead-beat, 1650 

We gave in ere we reached the boundary 

And safe spot out of this irrational Rome, — 

Where, on dismounting from our steeds next day. 

We had snapped our fingers at you, safe and sound, 

Tuscans once more in blessed Tuscany, 1655 

Where laws make wise allowance, understand 

Civilized life and do its champions right! 

Witness the sentence of the Rota there, 

Arezzo uttered, the Granduke confirmed, 

One week before I acted on its hint, — 1660 

Giving friend Guillichini, for his love. 

The galleys, and my wife your saint, Rome's saint, — 

Rome manufactures saints enough to know, — 

Seclusion at the Stinche ^ for her life. 

All this, that all but was, might all have been, 1665 

Yet was not! baulked by just a scrupulous knave 

Whose palm was horn through handling horses' hoofs 

And could not close upon my proffered gold! 

What say you to the spite of fortune ? Well, 

The worst's in store: thus hindered, haled this way 1670 

To Rome again by hangdogs, whom find I 

Here, still to fight with, but my pale frail wife ? 

— Riddled with wounds by one not like to waste 

The blows he dealt, — knowing anatomy, — 

(1 think I told you) bound to pick and choose 1675 

The vital parts! 'T was learning all in vain! 

She too must shimmer through the gloom o' the grave. 

Come and confront me — not at judgment-seat 

Where I could twist her soul, as erst her flesh. 

And turn her truth into a lie, — but there, 1680 

O' the death-bed, with God's hand between us both. 

Striking me dumb, and helping her to speak, 

Tell her own story her own way, and turn 

> Stinche : the prison. 



444 THE RIXG AJVD THE BOOK. 

- My plausibility to nothingness! 

Four whole days did Pompilia keep alive, 1685 

With the best surgery of Rome agape 

At the miracle, — this cut, the other slash, 

And yet the life refusing to dislodge. 

Four whole extravagant impossible days. 

Till she had time to finish and persuade 1690 

Every man, every woman, every child 

In Rome, of what she would: the selfsame she 

Who, but a year ago, had wrung her hands. 

Reddened her eyes and beat her breasts, rehearsed 

The whole game at Arezzo, nor availed 1695 

Thereby to move one heart or raise one hand 

When destiny intends you cards like these, 

What good of skill and preconcerted play? 

Had she been found dead, as I left her dead, 

I should have told a tale brooked no reply : 1 700 

You scarcely will suppose me found at fault 

With that advantage! *' What brings me to Rome? 

Necessity to claim and take my wife : 

Better, to claim and take my new-born balje, — 

Strong in paternity a fortnight old, 1705 

When 't is at strongest : warily I work. 

Knowing the machinations of my foe ; 

I have companionship and use the night : 

I seek my wife and child, — ^I find — no child 

But wife, in the embraces of that priest 1710 

Who caused her to elope from me. These two, 

Backed by the pander-pair who watch the while, 

Spring on me like so many tiger-cats. 

Glad of the chance to end the intruder. I — 

What should I do but stand on my defence. 1715 

Strike right, strike left, strike thick and threefold, slay. 

Not all — because the coward priest escapes. 

Last, I escape, in fear of evil tongues, 

And having had my taste of Roman law." 

What's disputable, refutable here? — 1720 

Save by just this one ghost-thing half on earth. 

Half out of it, — as if she held God's hand 

While she leant back and looked her last at me. 

Forgiving me (here monks begin to weep) 

Oh, from her very soul, commending mine 1725 

To heavenly mercies which are infinite. — 

While fixing fast my head beneath your knife! 

'T is fate not fortune. All is of a piece! 

When was it chance informed me of my youths? 

My rustic four o' the family, soft swains. 1730 

What sweet surprise had they in store for me, 



GUIDO. 445 

Those of my very household, — what did Law 

Twist with her rack-and-cord-contrivance late 

From out their bones and marrow? What but this — 

Had no one of these several stumbling-blocks 1735 

Stopped me. they yet were cherishing a scheme, 

All of their honest country homespun wit. 

To quietly next day at crow of cock 

Cut my own throat too, for their own behoof. 

Seeing I had forgot to clear accounts 1740 

O" the instant, nowise slackened speed for that, — 

And somehow never might tind memory, 

Once safe back in Arezzo, where things change, 

And a court-lord needs mind no country lout. 

Well, being the arch-offender, I die last, — 1745 

May, ere my head falls, have my eyesight free. 

Nor miss them dangling high on either hand. 

Like scarecrows in a hemp-field, for their pains! 



And then my Trial, — 't is my Trial that bites 

Like a corrosive, so the cards are packed, 1750 

Dice loaded, and my life-stake tricked away! 

Look at my lawyers, lacked they grace of law, 

Latin or logic? Were not they fools to the height, 

Fools to the depth, fools to the level between, 

O' the foolishness set to decide the case? 1755 

They feign, they flatter ; nowise does it skill, 

Everything goes against me : deal each judge 

His dole of flattery and feigning, — why. 

He turns and tries and snuffs and savors it, 

As some old fly the sugar-grain, your gift ; 1760 

Then eyes your thumb and finger, brushes clean 

The absurd old head of him. and whisks away. 

Leaving your thumb and finger dirty. Faugh! 



And finally, after this long-drawn range 

Of affront and failure, failure and affront. — 1765 

This path, "twixt crosses leading to a skull. 

Paced by me barefoot, bloodied by my palms 

From the entry to the end, — there 's light at length, 

A cranny of escape : appeal may be 

To the old man, to the father, to the Pope, 177° 

For a little life — from one whose life is spent, 

A little pity — from pity's source and seat. 

A little indulgence to rank, privilege. 

From one who is the thing personified. 

Rank, privilege, indulgence, grown beyond 1775 



446 THE RIXG AXD THE BOOK. 

Earth's bearing, even, ask Jansenius^ else! 

Still the same answer, still no other tune 

From the cicala perched at the tree-top 

Than crickets noisy round the root : "t is "Die! " 

Bids Law — "Be damned!" adds Gospel. — nay, 1780 

No word so frank, — 't is rather, " Save yourself !" 

The Pope subjoins — " Confess and be absolved! 

So shall my credit countervail your shame. 

And the world see I have not lost the knack 

Of trying all the spirits : yours, my son, 1785 

Wants but a fiery washing to emerge 

In clarity! Come, cleanse you, ease the ache ■ 

Of these old bones, refresh our bowels, boy! "' 

Do I mistake your mission from the Pope ? 

Then, bear his Holiness the mind of me! 1790 

I do get strength from being thrust to wall. 

Successively wrenched from pillar and from post 

By this tenacious hate of fortune, hate 

Of all things in, under, and above earth. 

Warfare, begun this mean unmanly mode, 1795 

Does best to end so, — gives earth spectacle 

Of a brave fighter who succumbs to odds 

That turn defeat to victory. Stab, I fold 

My mantle round me! Rome approves my act: 

Applauds the blow which costs me life but keeps 1800 

My honor spotless : Rome would praise no more 

Had I fallen, say, some fifteen years ago. 

Helping Vienna when our Aretines 

Flocked to Duke Charles and fought Turk Mustafa ; ^ 

Nor would you two be trembling o'er my corpse 1805 

With all this exquisite solicitude. 

Why is it that I make such suit to live ? 

The popular sympathy that 's round me now 

Would break like bubble that o 'er-domes a fly : 

Solid enough while he lies quiet there, 1810 

But let him want the air and ply the wing, 

Why, it breaks and bespatters him. what else ? 

Cardinal, if the Pope had pardoned me. 

And I walked out of prison through the crowd. 

It would not be your arm I should dare press! 181 5 

Then, if I got safe to my place again. 



1 yanseniiis : Cornelius Jansenius (1585- John Sobieski relieved Vienna, in 1683, from its 

1638), from whom the Jansenists took their second siege by the Turks under Kara Mus- 

name; author of the work called "Angus- tafa, Grand Vizier and General of Mahomet 

tinus," condemned by several popes in sue- IV. Duke Charles of Lorraine led a part of 

cession. the relieving force against the Turks, who 

* Helping Vienna . . . Mustafa : when were routed. 



GCIDO. » 447 

How sad and sapless were the years to come! 

I go my old ways and tind things grown gray ; 

Vou priests leer at me, old friends look askance 

Tlie mob's in love, 1 '11 wager to a man, 1820 

With mv poor young good beauteous murdered wife : 

For hearts require instruction how to beat, 

And eyes, on warrant of the story, wax 

Wanton at portraiture in white and black 

Of dead Pompilia gracing ballad-sheet, 1825 

Which eyes, lived she unmurdered and unsung. 

Would never turn though she paced street as bare 

As the mad penitent ladies do in France. 

Mv brothers quietly would edge me out 

Of use and management of things called mine ; 1830 

Do I command? ''You stretched command before V 

Show anger? " Anger little helped you once! '' 

Advise? "How manage you affairs of old?" 

My very mother, all the while they gird. 

Turns eye up, gives confirmatory groan ; 1835 

For unsuccess, explain it how you will. 

Disqualifies vou, makes you doubt yourself, 

— Aluch more, is found decisive by your friends. 

Beside, am I not fifty years of age ? 

What new leap would a life take, checked like mine 1840 

r the spring at outset? Where 's my second chance? 

Ay, but the babe ... I had forgot my son, 

My heir! Now for a burst of gratitude! 

There "s some appropriate service to intone, 

Some gaudea»iHS ^ and thanksgiving-psalm ! 1845 

Old, I renew my youth in him, and poor 

Possess a treasure, — is not that the phrase? 

Only I must wait patient twenty years — 

Nourishing all the while, as father ought. 

The excrescence with my daily blood of life. 1850 

Does it respond to hope, such sacrifice, — 

Grows the wen plump while I myself grow lean? 

Why, here 's my son and heir in evidence, 

Who stronger, wiser, handsomer than I 

By fifty years, relieves me of each load, — 1855 

Tames my hot horse, carries my heavy gun. 

Courts my coy mistress, — has his apt advice 

On house-economy, expenditure, 

And what not. All which good gifts and great growth 

Because of my decline, he brings to bear i860 

On Guido, but half apprehensive how 

He cumbers earth, crosses the brisk young Count, 

' Gaudeamus : let us rcjofte. 



THE R/iVG AND THE BOOK. 

Who civilly would thrust him from the scene. 

Contrariwise, does the blood-offering fail? 

There 's an ineptitude, one blank the more 1865 

Added to earth in semblance of my child? 

Then, this has been a costly piece of work, 

My life exchanged for his! — why he, not I, 

Enjoy the world, if no more grace accrue? 

Dwarf me, what giant have you made of him? 1870 

I do not dread the disobedient son : 

I know how to suppress rebellion there, 

Being not quite the fool my father was. 

But grant the medium measure of a man, 

The usual compromise Hwixt fool and sage, 1875 

— You know — -the tolerably-obstinate. 

The not-so-much-perverse but you may train, 

The true son-servant that, when parent bids 

" Go work, son, in my vineyard ! " makes reply 

"I go, Sir!" — Why, what profit in your son 1880 

Beyond the drudges you might subsidize. 

Have the same work froin, at a paul the head? 

Look at those four young precious olive-plants 

Reared at Vittiano, — not on flesh and blood, 

These twenty years, but black bread and sour wine! 1885 

I bade them put forth tender branch, hook, hold. 

And hurt three enemies I had in Rome : 

They did my hest as unreluctantly. 

At promise of a dollar, as a son 

Adjured by mumping memories of the past. 1890 

No, nothing repays youth expended so — 

Youth, I say, who am young still : grant but leave 

To live my life out, to the last I 'd live 

And die conceding age no right of youth! 

It is the will runs the renewing nerve 1895 

Through flaccid flesh that faints before the time. 

Therefore no sort of use for son have I — 

Sick, not of life's feast but of steps to climb 

To the house where life prepares her feast, — of means 

To the end : for make the end attainable 1900 

Without the means, — my relish were like yours. 

A man may have an appetite enough 

For a whole dish of robins ready cooked, 

And yet lack courage to face sleet, pad snow. 

And snare sufficiently for supper. 

Thus 1905 

The time 's arrived when, ancient Roman-like, 
I am bound to fall on my own sword : why not 
Say — Tuscan-hke, more ancient, better still? 



GUI DO. 449 

Will you hear truth can do no harm nor good? 

I think I never was at any time 1910 

A Christian, as you nickname all the world. 

Me among others : truce to nonsense now! 

Name me, a primitive religionist — 

As should the aboriginary be 

I boast myself, P^truscan, Aretine, 191 5 

One sprung, — your frigid MrgiPs fieriest word,i — 

From fauns and nymphs, trunks and the heart of oak. 

With, — for a visible divinity, — 

The portent of a Jove ^giochus- 

Descried "mid clouds, lightning and thunder, couched 1920 

On topmost crag of your Capitoline : 

'T is in the Seventh /Eneid, — what, the Eighth? 

Right, — thanks. Abate, — though the Christian's dumb, 

The Latinist 's vivacious in you yet! 

I know my grandsire had our tapestry 1925 

Marked with the motto, 'neath a certain shield. 

Whereto his grandson presently will give gules 

To vary azure. First we fight for faiths, 

But get to shake hands at the last of all : 

Mine 's your faith too, — in Jove /Egiochus! 1930 

Nor do Greek gods, that serve as supplement, 

Jar with the simpler scheme, if understood. 

We want such intermediary race 

To make communication possible ; 

The real thing were too lofty, we too low, 1935 

Midway hang these: we feel their use so plain 

In linking height to depth, that we doff hat 

And i)ut no question nor pry narrowly 

Into the nature hid behind the names. 

We grudge no rite the fancy may demand ; 1940 

But never, more than needs, invent, refine. 

Improve upon requirement, idly wise 

Beyond the letter, teaching gods their trade. 

Which is to teach us : we'll obey when taught. 

Why should we do our duty past the need? 1945 

When the sky darkens, Jove is wroth, — say prayer! 

When the sun shines and Jove is glad, — sing psalm! 

But wherefore pass prescription and devise 

Blood-offering for sweat-service, lend the rod 

A pungency through pickle of our own? 1950 

1 Virgil's fieriest word : "/Eneid," VIII. The reference which follows is to 11. 351- 

314,315 — 353 of the same book. 

" Hsec nemora indigena; Fauni Nympha;que ' Jove ^Hgiochiis : ^Egis bearing Jove, 

tenebant, 
Gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata." 
2G 



450 THE RIXG A.YD THE BOOK, 

Learned Abate, — no one teaches you 

What Venus means and who's Apollo here! 

I spare you, Cardinal, — but, though you wince, 

You know me, I know you, and both know that! 

So, if Apollo bids us fast, we fast : 1955 

But where does Venus order we stop sense 

When Master Pietro^ rhymes a pleasantry? 

Give alms prescribed on Friday : but, hold hand 

Because your foe lies prostrate, — where 's the word 

Explicit in the book debars revenge? i960 

The rationale of your scheme is just 

" Pay toll here, there pursue your pleasure free!" 

So do you turn to use the medium-powers. 

Mars and Minerva, Bacchus and the rest, 

And so are saved propitiating — whom? 1965 

What all-good, all-wise and all-potent Jove 

Vexed by the very sins in man, himself 

Made life's necessity when man he made? 

Irrational bunglers! So, the living truth 

Revealed to strike Pan dead,^ ducks low at last, 1970 

Prays leave to hold its own and live good days 

Provided it go masque grotesquely, called 

Christian not Pagan. Oh, you purged the sky 

Of all gods save the One, the great and good, 

Clapped hands and triumphed! But the change came fast : 1975 

The inexorable need in man for life — - 

(Life, you may mulct and minish to a grain 

Out of the lump, so that the grain but live) 

Laughed at your substituting death for life. 

And bade you do your worst : which worst was done 1980 

In just that age styled primitive and pure 

When Saint this, Saint that, dutifully starved. 

Froze, fought with beasts, was beaten and abused 

And finally ridded of his flesh by fire. 

He kept life-long unspotted from the world! 1985 

Next age, how goes the game, what mortal gives 

His life and emulates Saint that. Saint this? 

Men mutter, make excuse or mutiny, 

In fine are minded all to leave the new, 

Stick to the old, — enjoy old liberty. 1990 

No prejudice in enjoyment, if you please. 

To the new profession : sin o' the sly, henceforth! 

The law stands though the letter kills : what then? 

The spirit saves as unmistakeably. 

'^Master Pietro : Pietro Aretino. See sion to the legend that, at the hour of the 
note on X. 652. Crucifixion, certain Greek sailors heard a 

^Revealed to strike Pan dead : an allu- voice proclaiming " Pan is dead." 



GUI DO. 451 

Omniscience sees, Omnipotence could stop, 199S 

Omnibenevolence pardons : it must be, 

Frown law its fiercest, there 's a wink somewhere! 

Such was the logic in this head of mine : 

I. like the rest, wrote " poison " on my bread, 

But broke and ate : — said " Those that use the sword 2000 

Shall perish by the same ; " then stabbed my foe. 

I stand on solid earth, not empty air : 

Dislodge me, let your Pope's crook hale me hence! 

Not he, nor you! And I so pity both, 

I "ll make the true charge you want wit to make : 2005 

'> Count Guido, who reveal our mystery, 

And trace all issues to the love of life : 

We having life to love and guard, like you, 

Whv did vou put us upon self-defence? 

You well knew what prompt pass-word would appease 2010 

The sentrv's ire when folk infringed his bounds. 

And yet kept mouth shut : do you wonder then 

If, in mere decency, he shot you dead? 

He can't have people play such pranks as yours 

Beneath his nose at noonday : you disdained 2015 

To give him an excuse before the world 

By crving ' I break rule to save our camp! ' 

Under the old rule, such offence were death ; 

And you had heard the Pontifex pronounce 

' Since you slay foe and violate the form. 2020 

Slaying' turns murder, which were sacrifice 

Had you, while, say, law-suiting foe to death. 

But raised an altar to the Unknown God 

Or else the Genius of the Vatican.' 

Why then this pother? — all because the Pope, 2025 

Doing his duty, cried • A foreigner. 

You scandalize the natives : here at Rome 

Romano vivitiir more : ^ wise men, here. 

Put the Church forward and efface themselves. 

The fit defence had been, — you stamped on wheat, 2030 

Intending all the time to tram])le tares, — 

Were fain extirpate, then, the heretic. 

You now find, in your haste was slain a fool : 

Nor Pietro, nor Violante, nor your wife 

Meant to breed up vour babe a Molinist! 2035 

Whence you are duly contrite. Not one \yord 

Of all this wdsdom did you urge : which slip 

Death must atone for.' " 

So, let death atone! 

' Romano vivitur more : " one does as Rome does." 



452 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

So ends mistake, so end mistakers! — end 

Perhaps to recommence, — how should I know? 2040 

Only, be sure, no punishment, no pain 
Childish, preposterous, impossible, 
But some such fate as Ovid could foresee, — 
Byblis in fliiviiini., let the weak soul end 

In water, sed Lycaon in htpjoji} but 2045 

The strong become a wolf for evermore! 
Change that Pompilia to a puny stream 
Fit to reflect the daisies on its bank! 
Let me turn wolf, be whole, and sate, for once, — 
Wallow in what is now a wolfishness 2050 

Coerced too much by the humanity 
That 's half of me as well! Grow out of man, 
Glut the wolf-nature, — what remains but grow 
Into the man again, be man indeed 

And all man? Do I ring the changes right? 2055 

Deformed, transformed, reformed, informed, conformed ! 
The honest instinct, pent and crossed through life, 
Let surge by death into a visible flow 
Of rapture : as the strangled thread of flame 
Painfully winds, annoying and annoyed, 2060 

Malignant and maligned, thro' stone and ore, 
Till earth exclude the stranger : vented once, 
It finds full play, is recognized a-top 
Some mountain as no such abnormal birth 
Fire for the mount, not streamlet for the vale! 2065 

Ay, of the water was that wife of mine — ■ 
Be it for good, be it for ill, no run 
O' the red thread through that insignificance! 
Again, how she is at me with those eyes! 
Away with the empty stare! Be holy still, 2070 

And stupid ever! Occupy your patch 
Of private snow that 's somewhere in what world 
May now be growing icy round your head, 
And aguish at your foot-print, — freeze not me. 
Dare follow not another step I take, -075 

Not with so much as those detested eyes, 
No, though they follow but to pray me pause 
On the incline, earth's edge that's next to hell! 
None of your abnegation of revenge! 

Fly at me frank, tug while I tear again! 2080 

There 's God, go tell Him, testify your worst! 
'' Not she! There was no touch in her of hate : 

And it would prove her hell, if I reached mine! 

' Byblis in fluviiiin . . . Lycaon in In- wolf, titles of transformations recorded in 
pum : Byblis into a river . . . Lycaon into a Ovid's " Metamorphoses." 



GUIDO. 453 

To know I suffered, would still sadden her, 

Do what the angels might to make amends! 2085 

Therefore there "s either no such place as hell, 

Or thence shall I be thrust forth, tor her sake, 

And thereby undergo three hells, not one — 

I who, with outlet for escape to heaven, 

Would tarry if such flight allowed my foe 2090 

To raise his head, relieved of that firm foot 

Had pinned him to the fiery pavement else! 

So am I made, "who did not make myself: " 

(How dared she rob my own lip of the word?) 

Eeware me in what other world may be! — 2095 

Pompilia, who have brought me to this pass ! 

All I know here, will I say there, and go 

Beyond the saying with the deed. Some use 

There cannot but be for a mood like mine. 

Implacable, persistent in revenge. 2100 

She maundered '' All is over and at end : 

I go my own road, go you where God will ! 

Forgive you? I forget you! " There 's the saint 

That takes your taste, you other kind of men! 

How you had loved her! Guido wanted skill 2105 

To value such a woman at her worth! 

Properly the instructed criticize 

" What 's here, you simpleton have tossed to take 

Its chance i' the gutter? This a daub, indeed? 

Why, "t is a Rafael that 3'ou kicked to rags! " 21 10 

Perhaps so : some prefer the pure design : 

Give me my gorge of color, glut of gold 

In a glory round the Virgin made for me! 

Titian 's the man. not Monk Angelico 

Who traces you some timid chalky ghost 21 15 

That turns the church into a charnel : ay, 

Just such a pencil might depict my wife! 

She, — since she, also, would not change herself, — 

Why could not she come in some heart-shaped cloud, 

Rainbowed about with riches, royalty 2120 

Rimming her round, as round the tintless lawn 

(iuardingly runs the selvage cloth of gold? 

1 would have left the faint fine gauze untouched, 

Needle-worked over with its lily and rose, 

Let her bleach unmolested in the midst, 2125 

Chill that selected solitary spot 

Of quietude she pleased to think was life. 

Purity, pallor grace the lawn no doubt 

When there 's the costly bordure to unthread 

And make again an ingot : but what \s grace 2130 

When you want meat and drink and clothes and fire? 



454 THE RIXG AXD THE BOOK. 

A tale comes to my mind that 's apposite — 

Possibly true, probably false, a truth 

Such as all truths we live by, Cardinal! 

'T is said, a certain ancestor of mine 2135 

Followed — whoever was the potentate. 

To Paynimrie,^ and in some battle, broke 

Through more than due allowance of the foe. 

And, risking much his own life, saved the lord's. 

Battered and bruised, the Emperor scrambles up, 2140 

Rubs his eyes and looks round and sees my sire, 

Picks a furze-sprig from out his hauberk-joint, 

(Token how near the ground went majesty) 

And says " Take this, and if thou get safe home, 

Plant the same in thy garden-ground to grow : 2145 

Run thence an hour in a straight line, and stop : 

Describe a circle round (for central point) 

The furze aforesaid, reaching every way 

The length of that hour's run : I give it thee, — 

The central point, to build a castle there, 2150 

The space circumjacent, for fit demesne. 

The whole to be thy children's heritage, — ■ 

Whom, for thy sake, bid thou wear furze on cap!" 

Those are my arms : we turned the furze a tree 

To show more, and the greyhound tied thereto, 2155 

Straining to start, means swift and greedy both ; 

He stands upon a triple mount of gold — 

By Jove, then, he's escaping from true gold 

And trying to arrive at empty air! 

Aha! the fancy never crossed my mind! 2160 

My father used to tell me, and subjoin 

" As for the castle, that took wings and flew : 

The broad lands, — why, to traverse them to-day 

Scarce tasks my gouty feet, and in my prime 

I doubt not I could stand and spit so far : 2165 

But for the furze, boy. fear no lack of that. 

So long as fortune leaves one field to grub! 

Wherefore, hurra for furze and loyalty!'' 

What may I mean, where may the lesson lurk? 

" Do not bestow on man, by way of gift, 2170 

Furze without land for framework, — vaunt no grace 

Of purity, no furze-sprig of a wife. 

To me, i' the thick of battle for my bread. 

Without some better dowry. — gold will do!" 

No better gift than sordid muck? Yes, Sirs! 2175 

Many more gifts much better. Give them me! 

O those Olimpias bold, those Biancas - brave, 

* Paynimri'e : heathendom. women not above lendina; themselves to their 

' Olitnpias . . . Biancas : fierce and fond husbands' schemes. For Olirapia, see IV. 232. 



GUIDO. 455 

That brought a husband power worth Ormuz' wealth! ^ 

Cried " Thou being mine, why, what but thine am I ? 

Be thou to me law, right, wrong, heaven and hell! 2180 

Let us blend souls, blent, thou in me, to bid 

Two bodies work one pleasure! What are these 

Called king, priest, father, mother, stranger, friend? 

Thev fret thee or they frustrate ? Give the word — 

Be certain they shall frustrate nothing more! 2185 

And who is this young florid foolishness 

That holds thy fortune in his pigmy clutch, 

— Being a prince and potency, forsooth! — 

He hesitates to let the trifle go? 

Let me but seal up eye, sing ear to sleep 2190 

Sounder than Samson, — pounce thou on the prize 

Shall slip from oft" my breast, and down couch-side. 

And on to floor, as far as my lord's feet — 

Where he stands in the shadow with the knife, 

Waiting to see what Delilah - dares do! 2195 

Is the youth fair? What is a man to me 

Who am thy call-bird? Twist his neck — my dupe's, — 

Then take the breast shall turn a breast indeed! '' 

Such women are there ; and they marry whom ? 

Why, when a man has gone and hanged himself 2200 

Because of what he calls a wicked wife, — 

See, if the very turpitude bemoaned 

Prove not mere excellence the fool ignores! 

His monster is perfection. — Circe,^ sent 

Straight from the sun, with wand the idiot blames 2205 

As not an honest distaff to spin wool! 

thou Lucrezia,* is it long to wait 
Yonder where all the gloom is in a glow 
With thy suspected presence? — virgin yet. 

Virtuous again, in face of what's to teach — 22x0 

Sin unimagined, unimaginable, — 

1 come to claim my bride, — thy Borgia's self 
Not half the burning bridegroom I shall be I 
Cardinal, take away your crucifix! 

Abate, leave my lips alone, — they bite! 2215 

Vainly you try to change what should not change, 
And shall not. I have bared, you bathe my heart — 

Bianca is the heroine of the old Italian story •> Circe : the sorceress of the " Odyssey," 

on which Milman founded his tragedy of daughter of the sun, who changed the com- 

" Fazio, or the Italian Wife." panions of Ulysses with a touch of her wand 

' Ormuz : an island in the Persian Gulf, into swine, 
which is a diamond market. See " Paradise * Lucrezia : Lucrezia Borgia (died 1523), 

Lost," i. 2. daughter of Pope Alexander Borgia, instru- 

' Delilah : Judges xvi. 9. ment of the crimes of the Borgias. 



456 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

It grows the stonier for your saving dew! 

You steep the substance, you would lubricate, 

In waters that but touch to petrify! 2220 

You too are petrifactions of a kind : 

Move not a muscle that shows mercy. Rave 

Another twelve hours, every word were waste! 

1 thought you would not slay impenitence. 

But teased, from men you slew, contrition first, — 2225 

I thought you had a conscience. Cardinal, 

You know I am wronged! — wronged, say, and wronged, maintain. 

Was this strict inquisition made for blood 

When first you showed us scarlet on your back, 

Called to the College ? Your straightforward way 2230 

To your legitimate end, — I think it passed 

OveV a scantling of heads brained, hearts broke. 

Lives trodden into dust! How otherwise.'' 

Such was the way o' the world, and so you walked. 

Does memory haunt your pillow.-* Not a whit. 2235 

God wills you never pace your garden-path, 

One appetizing hour ere dinner-time. 

But your intrusion there treads out of life 

A universe of happy innocent things : 

Feel you remorse about that damsel-fly 2240 

Which buzzed so near your mouth and flapped your face? 

You blotted it from being at a blow : 

It was a fly, you were a man, and more. 

Lord of created things, so took your course. 

Manliness, mind, — these are things fit to save, 2245 

Fit to brush fly from : why, because I take 

My course, must needs the Pope kill me? — kill you! 

You ! for this instrument, he throws away. 

Is strong to serve a master, and were yours 

To have and hold and get much good from out! 2250 

The Pope who dooms me needs must die next year ; 

I '11 tell you how the chances are supposed 

For his successor : first the Chamberlain, 

Old San Cesario, — Colloredo, next, — 

Then, one, two, three, four, I refuse to name ; 2255 

After these, comes Altieri ; then come you — 

Seventh on the list you come, unless ... ha, ha, 

How can a dead hand give a friend a lift.'' 

Are you the person to despise the help 

O' the head shall drop in pannier presently? 2260 

So a child seesaws on or kicks away 

The fulcrum-stone that 's all the sage requires 

To fit his lever to and move the world. 

Cardinal, I adjure you in God's name, 



GUIDO. 457 

Save my life, fall at the Pope's feet, set forth 2265 

Things your own fashion, not in words like these 

Made for a sense like yours who apprehend! 

Translate into the Court-conventional 

"Count Guido must not die, is innocent! 

Fair, be assured ! But what an he were foul, 2270 

Blood-drenched and murder-crusted head to foot? 

Spare one whose death insults the Emperor, 

Nay, outrages the Louis you so love! 

He has friends who will avenge him ; enemies 

Who will hate God now with impunity, 2275 

Missing the old coercive : would you send 

A soul straight to perdition, dying frank 

An atheist ? " Go and say this, for God's sake ! 

— Why, you don't think I hope you '11 say one word ? 

Neither shall I persuade you from your stand 2280 

Nor you persuade me from my station : take 

Your crucifix away, I tell you twice ! 

Come, I am tired of silence! Pause enough! 

You have prayed : I have gone inside my soul 

And shut its door behind me : 't is your torch 2285 

Makes the place dark : the darkness let alone 

Grows tolerable twilight : one may grope 

And get to guess at length and breadth and depth. 

What is this fact I feel persuaded of — 

This something like a foothold in the sea, 2290 

Although Saint Peter's bark scuds, billow-borne. 

Leaves me to founder where it flung me first ? 

Spite of your splashing, I am high and dry! 

God takes his own part in each thing He made ; 

Made for a reason. He conserves his work, 2295 

Gives each its proper instinct of defence. 

My lamblike wife could neither bark nor bite. 

She bleated, bleated, till for pity pure 

The village roused up, ran with pole and prong 

To the rescue, and behold the wolf's at bay! 2300 

Shall he try bleating.'' — or take turn or two. 

Since the wolf owns some kinship with the fox, 

And, failing to escape the foe by craft. 

Give up attempt, die fighting quietly? 

The last bad blow that strikes fire in at eye 2305 

And on to brain, and so out, life and all, 

How can it but be cheated of a pang 

If, fighting quietly, the jaws enjoy 

One re-embrace in mid back-bone they break. 

After their weary work thro' the foe's flesh? 2310 

That's the wolf-nature. Don't mistake my trope! 



458 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

A Cardinal so qualmish ? Eminence, 

My fight is figurative, blows i' the air, 

Brain-war with powers and principalities, 

Spirit-bravado, no real fisticuffs! 2315 

1 shall not presently, when the knock comes, 

Cling to this bench nor claw the hangman's face. 

No, trust me! I conceive worse lots than mine. 

Whether it be, the old contagious fit 

And plague o' the prison have surprised me too, 2320 

The appropriate drunkenness of the death-hour 

Crept on my sense, kind work o' the wine and myrrh, — 

I know not, — • I begin to taste my strength. 

Careless, gay even. What 's the worth of life? 

The Pope 's dead now, my murderous old man, 2325 

For Tozzi told me so : and you, forsooth — 

Why, you don't think, Abate, do your bes^ 

You '11 live a year more with that hacking cough 

And blotch of crimson where the cheek 's a pit ? 

Tozzi has got you also down in book! 2330 

Cardinal, only seventh of seventy near, 

Is not one called Albano ^ in the lot? 

Go eat your heart, you '11 never be a Pope! 

Inform me, is it true you left your love, 

A Pucci, for promotion in the church? 2335 

She's more than in the church, — in the churchyard! 

Plautilla Pucci, your atflanced bride. 

Has dust now in the eyes that held the love, — 

And Martinez, suppose they make you Pope, 

Stops that with veto, — so, enjoy yourself! 2340 

I see you all reel to the rock, you waves — 

Some forthright, some describe a sinuous track. 

Some, crested brilliantly, with heads above. 

Some in a strangled swirl sunk who knows how. 

But all bound whither the main-current sets, 2345 

Rockward, an end in foam for all of you! 

What if I be o'ertaken, pushed to the front 

By all you crowding smoother souls behind, 

And reach, a minute sooner than was meant, 

The boundary whereon I break to mist? 2350 

Go to! the smoothest safest of you all. 

Most perfect and compact wave in my train, 

Spite of the blue tranquillity above, 

Spite of the breadth before of lapsing peace. 

Where broods the halcyon and the fish leaps free, 2355 

Will presently begin to feel the prick 

At lazy heart, the push at torpid brain, 

' One called Albano : the next pope was Giovanni Francisco Albanl. 



GUIDO. 



459 



Will rock vertiginously in turn, and reel, 

And. emulative, rush to death like me. 

Later or sooner by a minute then, 2360 

So much for the untimcliness of death! 

And, as regards the manner that oflfends, 

The rude and rough. I count the same for gain. 

Be the act harsh and quick! Undoubtedly 

The soul "s condensed and, twice itself, e.xpands 2365 

To burst thro' life, by alternation due, 

Into the other state whate'er it prove. 

You never know what life means till you die : 

Even throughout life, 't is death that makes life live, 

Gives it whatever the significance. 2370 

For see, on your own ground and argument, 

Suppose life had no death to fear, how find 

A possibility of nobleness 

In man. prevented daring anv more? 

What 's love, what "s faith without a worst to dread? 2375 

Lack-lustre jewelry! but faith and love 

With death behind them bidding do or die — 

Put such a foil at back, the sparkle \s born! 

From out myself how the strange colors come! 

Is there a new rule in another world? 2^80 

Be sure I shall resign myself: as here "^ 

I recognized no law I could not see. 

There, what I see. I shall acknowledge too : 

On earth I never took the Pope for God, 

In heaven I shall scarce take God for the Pope. 2385 

Unmanned, remanned : I hold it probable — 

With something changeless at the heart of me 

To know me by, some nucleus that's myself: 

Accretions did it wrong? Aw^av with them — 

You soon shall see the use of fire! 

Till when. 2390 

All that was. is ; and must forever be. 
Nor is it in me to unhate my hates, — 
I use up my last strength to strike once more 
Old Pietro in the wine-house-gossip-face, 
To trample underfoot the whine and wile 2395 

Of beast Violante, — and I grow one gorge 
To loathingly reject Pompifia's pale 
Poison my hasty hunger took for food. 
A strong tree wants no wreaths about its trunk. 
No cloying cups, no sickly sweet of scent. 2400 

But sustenance at root, a "bucketful. 
How else lived that Athenian ^ who died so, 

I That Athenian: Themistocles, said to have killed himself by drinking bull's blood, 
which the ancients considered was poisonous. 



46o THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Drinking hot bulPs blood, fit for men like me? 
I lived and died a man, and take man's chance, 
Honest and bold : right will be done to such. 2405 

Who are these you have let descend my stair? 

Ha, their accursed psalm I^ Lights at the sill! 

Is it ''Open" they dare bid you? Treachery! 

Sirs, have I spoken one word all this while 

Out of the world of words I had to say? 2410 

Not one word! All was folly — I laughed and mocked! 

Sirs, my first true word, all truth and no lie, 

Is — save me notwithstanding! Life is all! 

I was just stark mad, — let the madman live 

Pressed by as many chains as you please pile! 2415 

Don't open! Hold me from them! I am yours, 

I am the Granduke's — no, I am the Pope's! 

Abate, — Cardinal, — Christ, — Maria, — God, . . . 

Pompilia, will you let them murder me? 

' Accursed psalm : the psalm chanted in the Office for the Dying by the Brothers of 
Mercy who attend criminals to the scaffold. 



THE BOOK AND THE RING. 461 



XII. 
THE BOOK AND THE RING. 



[In the concluding Book the last glimmerings of that vivid event — the Frances- 
chini case — are traced as they pale out into the black oblivion of the centuries. 
First a letter is given from a Venetian traveller of rank, whose disposition is much 
the same as that of " Half-Rome." He relates the news in Rome and incidentally 
describes Guide's execution. Two letters follow from the lawvers, each of whom 
comments characteristically on the final steps and outcome of the case, while dis- 
creetly shifting sides a little, Guido's lawyer insinuating his clever policy in suffer- 
ing the Pope to have his way, and Pompilia's lawyer, after indignantly quoting from 
a sermon by Pompilia's confessor, maintaining that he will soon show, when he 
undertakes the case for the convertite nuns against Pompilia's Will, how he proved 
Guido's guilt, but not Pompilia's innocence. In this sermon extract, which so 
excites Bottini's ire, Pompilia's purity and moral triumph over the equivocations 
of public opinion and legal pleading are represented. Finally the verdict appears, 
vindicating Pompilia, by warranting her son the enjoyment of his property ; and 
the story closes as it began, with the Poet's word upon the relative falsitv of fact 
and truth of art, and with the dedication of this work to companionship with that of 
his " Lyric Love."] 

Here were the end, had anything an end : 

Thus, lit and launched, up and up roared and soared 

A rocket, till the key o' the vault was reached. 

And wide heaven held, a breathless minute-space, 

In brilliant usurpature : thus caught spark. 5 

Rushed to the height, and hung at full of fame 

Over men's upturned faces, ghastly thence. 

Our glaring Guido : now decline must be. 

In its explosion, you have seen his act. 

By my power — may-be, judged it by your own. — 10 

Or composite as good orbs prove, or crammed 

With worse ingredients than the Wormwood Star.^ 

The act, over and ended, falls and fades : 

What was once seen, grows what is now described. 

Then talked of, told al)out. a tinge the less 15 

In every fresh transmission ; till it melts. 

Trickles in silent orange or wan gray 

Across our memory, dies and leaves all dark. 

'^ The \Vor»fwood Star : Revelation viii. according to a superstition of the Middle 
II. A star believed to be a portent of death Ages. 



462 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And presently we find the stars again. 

P'ollow the main streaks, meditate the mode 

Of brightness, how it hastes to blend with black! 



After that February Twenty-Two, 

Since our salvation, Sixteen-Ninety-Eight, 

Of all reports that were, or may have been. 

Concerning those the day killed or let live, 25 

Four I count only. Take the first that comes. 

A letter from a stranger, man of rank, 

Venetian visitor at Rome, — who knows. 

On what pretence of busy idleness? 

Thus he begins on evening of that day. 30 



" Here are we at our end of Carnival ; 

Prodigious gaiety and monstrous mirth. 

And constant shift of entertaining show : 

With influx, from each quarter of the globe, 

Of strangers nowise wishful to be last 35 

r the struggle for a good place presently 

When that befalls fate cannot long defer. 

The old Pope totters on the verge o' the grave : 

You see, Malpichi understood far more 

Than Tozzi how to treat the ailments : age, 40 

No question, renders these inveterate. 

Cardinal Spada, actual Minister, 

Is possible Pope ; I wager on his head, 

Since those four entertainments of his niece 

Which set all Rome a-stare : Pope probably — 45 

Though Colloredo has his backers too. 

And San Cesario makes one doubt at times : 

Altieri will be Chamberlain at most. 

" A week ago the sun was warm like May, 

And the old man took daily exercise 50 

Along the river-side ; he loves to see 

That Custom-house he built upon the bank. 

For, Naples born, his tastes are maritime : 

But yesterday he had to keep in-doors 

Because of the outrageous rain that fell. 55 

On such days the good soul has fainting-fits. 

Or lies in stupor, scarcely makes believe 

Of minding business, fumbles at his beads. 

They say, the trust that keeps his heart alive 

Is that, by lasting till December next, 60 



THE BOOK AXD THE RIN'G. 463 

He may liold Jubilee a second time, 

And. twice in one reign, ope the Holy Doors. ^ 

By the way, somebody responsible 

Assures me that the King of France has writ 

Fresh orders : Fenelon will be condemned : ^ 65 

The Cardinal makes a wry face enough. 

Having a love for the delinquent : still, 

He 's the ambassador, must press the point. 

Have you a wager too, dependent here? 

" Now, from such matters to divert awhile, 70 

Hear of to-day's event which crowns the week. 

Casts all the other wagers into shade. 

Tell Dandolo I owe him fifty drops 

Of heart's blood in the shape of gold zecchines! 

The Pope has done his worst : I have to pay 75 

For the execution of the Count, by Jove! 

Two days since, I reparted him as safe. 

Re-echoing the conviction of all Rome : 

Who could suspect its one deaf ear — the Pope's? 

But prejudices grow insuperable, 80 

And that old enmity to Austria, that 

Passion for France and France's pageant-king 

(Of which, why pause to multiply the proofs 

Now scandalously rife in Europe's mouth?) 

These fairly got the better in our man 85 

Of justice, prudence, and esprit de corps, 

And he persisted in the butchery. 

Also, 't is said that in his latest walk 

To that Dogana-by-the-Bank^ he built. 

The crowd, — he suffers question, unrebuked, — 90 

Asked, 'Whether murder was a privilege 

Only reserved for nobles like the Count?' 

And he was ever mindful of the mob. 

Martinez, the Caesarian Minister, 

— Who used his best endeavors to spare blood, 95 
And strongly pleaded for the life ' of one,' 

Urged he, • \ may have dined at table with! ' — 
He will not soon forget the Pope's rebuff, 

— Feels the slight sensibly, I promise you! 

And but for the dissuasion of two eyes 100 

That make with him foul weather or fine day, 
He had abstained, nor t^raced the spectacle : 
As it was, barely would he condescend 

' Holy Doors : see III. 567. condemned by Pope Innocent in 1699 for its 

■ Fenelon will be condemned : Fenelon's advocacy of Quietism. 
Explication des Maximes des Saints" was ^ Dogana : custom-house. 



464 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Look forth from the palchetto ^ where he sat 

Under the Pincian : we shall hear of this. 105 

The substituting, too, the People's Square 

For the out-o'-the-way old quarter by the Bridge, 

Was meant as a conciliatory sop 

To the mob ; it gave one holiday the more. 

But the French Embassy might unfurl flag, — no 

Still the good luck of France to fling a foe! 

Cardinal Bouillon triumphs properly. 

Palchetti were erected in the Place, 

And houses, at the edge of the Three Streets,* 

Let their front windows at six dollars each : 115 

Anguisciola, that patron of the arts, 

Hired one ; our Envoy Contarini too. 

" Now for the thing ; no sooner the decree 

Gone forth, — 't is four-and-twenty hours ago, — 

Than Acciaiuoli and Panciatichi, 120 

Old friends, indeed compatriots of the man, 

Being pitched on as the couple properest 

To intimate the sentence yesternight. 

Were closeted ere cock-crow with the Count. 

They both report their efforts to dispose 125 

The unhappy nobleman for ending well, 

Despite the natural sense of injury, 

Were crowned at last with a complete success. 

And when the Company of Death arrived 

At twenty-hours, — the way they reckon here, — 130 

We say, at sunset, after dinner-time, — 

The Count was led down, hoisted up on car, 

Last of the five, as heinousest, you know : 

Yet they allowed one whole car to each man. 

His intrepidity, nay, nonchalance, 135 

As up he stood and down he sat himself. 

Struck admiration into those who saw. 

Then the procession started, took the way 

From the New Prisons by the Pilgrim's Street, 

The street of the Governo, Pasquin's Street,^ 140 

(Where was stuck up, mid other epigrams, 

A quatrain . . . but of all that, presently !) 

1 Palcheito : stage or scaffold. the city wits. After Pasquin's death in the 

^ The Three Streets : Via di Ripetta, Via sixteenth century, this statue was dug up 

del Babuino, and the Corso, diverging south- near his shop, and set up there and named 

ward from the Piazza del Popolo. in his honor, and the sharp sayings and bon- 

3 Pasquin's Street : Pasquin, which names }>wis of the city were pasted up on Pasquin, 

the street, was a broken stump of an antique and hence called Pasquinades. A similar 

statue probably of Ajax supporting Menelaus, statue, Marforio, in another quarter, was used 

near Pasquin's tailor-shop, the rendezvous of or which to post replies to Pasquin. 



THE BOOK AXD THE RLVG. 465 

The Place Navona, the Pantheon's Place, 

Place of the Column, last the Corso's length, 

And so debouched thence at Mannaia's foot 145 

V the Place o' the People. As is evident, 

(Despite the malice. — plainly meant, I fear, 

By this abrupt change of locality, — 

The Square \s no such bad place to head and hang) 

We had the titillation as we sat 150 

Assembled, (quality in conclave, ha?) 

Of, minute after minute, some report 

How the slow show was winding on its way. 

Now did a car run over, kill a man. 

Just opposite a pork-shop numbered Twelve : 15S 

And bitter were the outcries of the mob 

Against the Pope : for, but that he forbids 

The Lottery, why. Twelve were Tern Quatern! ^ 

Now did a beggar by Saint Agnes, lame 

From his youth up, recover use of leg, 160 

Through prayer of Guido as he glanced that way : 

So that the crowd near crammed his hat with coin. 

Thus was kept up excitement to the last, 

— Not an abrupt out-bolting, as of yore. 

From Castle, over Bridge and on to block, 165 

And so all ended ere you well could wink! 

" To mount the scaffold-steps, Guido was last 

Here also, as atrociousest in crime. 

We hardly noticed how the peasants died. 

They dangled somehow soon to right and left, 170 

And' we remained all ears and e3-es, could give 

Ourselves to Guido undividedly. 

As he harangued the multitude beneath. 

He begged forgiveness on the part of God, 

And fair construction of his act from men, 175 

Whose suffrage he entreated for his soul, 

Suggesting that we should forthwith repeat 

A Filter'^ and an Ave,^ with the hymn 

Sahie Regina Cali,'^ for his sake. 

Which said, he turned to the confessor, crossed l8o 

And reconciled himself, with decency. 

Oft glancing at Saint Mary's opposite, 

Where they possess, and showed in shrine to-day, 

The blessed Uinbilicns •' of our Lord, 

(A relic 't is believed no other church 185 

1 Tern Quatern : a lottery prize resulting ' Ave : " Hail, Mary." 

from a combination of threes and fours. * Salve Retina: " Hail, Queen of Heaven." 

^ Pater : " Our Father." ■■ Umdiu'ciu : navel. 
2 H 



466 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

In Rome can boast of) — then rose up, as brisk 
Knelt down again, bent head, adapted neck, 
And, with the name of Jesus on his lips. 
Received the fatal blow. 

" The headsman showed 
The head to the populace. Must I avouch 190 

We strangers own to disappointment here? 
Report pronounced him fully six feet high. 
Youngish, considering his fifty years. 
And, if not handsome, dignified at least. 

Indeed, it was no face to please a wife! 195 

His friends say, this was caused by the costume : 
He wore the dress he did the murder in, 
That is, a.jnst-a-corps,^ of russet serge, 
Black camisole, coarse cloak of baracan 

(So they style here the garb of goat's-hair cloth) 200 

White hat and cotton cap beneath, poor Count 
Preservative against the evening dews 
During the journey from Arezzo. Well, 
So died the man, and so his end was peace ; 
Whence many a moral were to meditate. 205 

Spada, — you may bet Dandolo, — is Pope! 
Now for the quatrain! " 



No, friend, this will do! 
You've sputtered into sparks. What streak comes next? 
A letter : Don Giacinto Arcangeli, 

Doctor and Proctor, him I made you mark 210 

Buckle to business in his study late. 
The virtuous sire, the valiant for the truth. 
Acquaints his correspondent, — Florentine, 
By name Cencini, advocate as well, 

Sociiis" and brother-in-the-devil to match, — 215 

A friend of Franceschini, anyhow. 
And knit up with the bowels of the case, — 
Acquaints him, (in this paper that I touch) 
How their joint effort to obtain reprieve 

For Guido had so nearly nicked the nine 220 

And ninety and one over, — folk would say 
At Tarocs,'^ — or succeeded, — in our phrase. 
To this Cencini's care I owe the Book, 
The yellow thing I take and toss once more, — 
How will it be, my four-years"-intimate, 225 

1 Just-a-corps : close to the body, a tightly ' Socius : an ally, 

fitting coat. 2 farocs : a game of cards. 



THE BOOK AM) THE RING. 467 

When thou and I part company anon ? — 

'T was he, the " whole position of the case," 

Pleading and summary, were put before ; 

Discreetly in my Book he bound them all, 

Adding some three epistles to the point. 230 

Here is the first of tliese, part fresh as penned, 

The sand, that dried the ink, not rubbed away, 

Though penned the day whereof it tells the deed: 

Part — extant just as plainly, you know where. 

Whence came the other stutT, went, you know how, 235 

To make the Ring that's all but round and done. 



" Late they arrived, too late, egregious Sir, 

Those same justificative points you urge 

Might benefit His Blessed Memory 

Count Guido Franceschini now with God : 240 

Since the Court, — to ^tate things succinctly, — styled 

The Congregation of the Governor, 

Having resolved on Tuesday last our cause 

r the guilty sense, with death for punishment. 

Spite of all pleas by me deducible 245 

In favor of said Blessed Memory, — 

I, with expenditure of pains enough. 

Obtained a respite, leave to claim and prove 

Exemption from the law's award, — alleged 

The power and privilege o' the Clericate : 250 

To which effect a courier was despatched. 

But ere an answer from Arezzo came. 

The Holiness of our Lord the Pope (prepare!) 

Judging it inexpedient to postpone 

The execution of such sentence passed, 255 

Saw fit, by his particular cheirograph. 

To derogate, dispense with privilege. 

And wink at any hurt accruing thence 

To Mother Church through damage of her son : 

Also, to overpass and set aside 260 

That other plea on score of tender age. 

Put forth by me to do Pasquini good. 

One of the four in trouble with our friend. 

So that all five, to-day, have suffered death 

With no distinction save in dying, — he, 265 

Decollate by mere due of privilege, 

The rest hanged decently and in order. Thus 

Came the Count to his end of gallant man. 

Defunct in faith and exemplarity : 

Nor shall the shield of his great House lose shine 270 

Thereby, nor its blue banner blush to red. 



468 THE RTXG AND THE BOOK. 

This, too, should yield sustainment to our hearts — 

He had commiseration and respect 

In his decease from universal Rome. 

(2Jiantiu!i est ho/ninun venustiorimi,'^ 275 

The nice and cultivated everywhere : 

Though, in respect of me his advocate. 

Needs must I groan o'er my debility. 

Attribute the untoward event o' the strife 

To nothing but my own crass ignorance 280 

Which failed to set the valid reasons forth, 

Find tit excuse : such is the fate of war! 

May God compensate us the direful blow 

By future blessings on his family, 

Whereof I low^ly beg the next commands ; 285 

— Whereto, as humbly, I confirm myself . . ." 

And so forth, — follow name and place and date. 
On next leaf — 

" Hacteiius senior ibus ! ^ 
There, old fox, show the clients t' other side 
And keep this corner sacred, I beseech! 290 

You and your pleas and proofs were what folk call 
Pisan assistance, aid that comes too late. 
Saves a man dead as nail in post of door. 
Had I but time and space for narrative! 

What was the good of twenty Clericates 295 

When Somebody's thick headpiece once was bent 
On seeing Guide's drop into the bag? 
How these old men like giving youth a push ! 
So much the better : next push goes to him, 
And a new Pope begins the century. 300 

Much good I get by my superb defence ! 
But argument is solid and subsists, 
While obstinacy and ineptitude 
Accompany the owner to his tomb — 

What do I care how soon? Beside, folk see! 305 

Rome will have relished heartily the show. 
Yet understood the motives, never fear. 
Which caused the indecent change o' the People's Place 
To the People's Playground, — stigmatize the spite 
Which in a trice precipitated things! 310 

As oft the moribund will give a kick 
To show they are not absolutely dead, 
So feebleness i' the socket shoots its last, 

1 Quantum est, etc. : " all the world of elders, meaning the general public, what fol- 
cultivated men," — from Catullus, 3, 2. lows being confidential. 

2 Hactenus senioribus ■ thus far for our 



THE BOOK AND THE RING. 469 

A spirt of violence for energy! 

But thou, Cencini, brother of my breast, 315 

fox whose home is 'mid the tender grape, 
Whose couch in Tuscany by Themis' ^ throne, 
Subject to no such . . . best I shut my mouth 
Or only open it again to say, 

This pother and confusion fairly laid, 320 

My hands are empty and my satchel lank. 

Now then for both the Matrimonial Cause 

And the Case of Gomez! - Serve them hot and hot! 

" Reliqua differamiis in crastiujim ! ^ 

The impatient estafette^ cracks whip outside : 325 

Still, though the earth should swallow him who swears 

And me who make the mischief, in must slip — 

My boy. your godson, fat-chaps Hyacinth, 

Enjoyed the sight while Papa plodded here. 

1 promised him, the rogue, a month ago, 330 
The day his birthday was, of all the days. 

That if I failed to save Count Guido's head, 

Cinuccio should at least go see it chopped 

From trunk — 'So, latinize your thanks!' quoth I. 

•That I prefer, /loc iiialiin^ raps me out 335 

The rogue : you notice the subjunctive? Ah! 

Accordingly he sat there, bold in box. 

Proud as the Pope behind the peacock-fans : 

Whereon a certain lady-patroness 

For whom I manage things (my boy in front, 340 

Her Marquis sat the third in evidence ; 

Boys have no eyes nor ears save for the show) 

'This time, Cintino,' was her sportive word. 

When whiz and thump went axe and mowed lay man. 

And folk could fall to the suspended chat, 345 

'This time, you see, Bottini rules the roast, 

Nor can Papa with all his eloquence 

Be reckoned on to help as heretofore!' 

Whereat Cinone pouts ; then, sparkishly — 

' Papa knew better than aggrieve his Pope, 350 

And baulk him of his grudge against our Count, 

Else he 'd have argued-oflf Bottini's' . . . what? 

' His nose,' — the rogue! well parried of the boy! 

He's long since out of Ciesar (eight years old) 

' Themis : Goddess of Justice, Daughter to in one of Browning's MS. sources for this 

of Heaven and Earth. " Themis' throne," poem. 

the law court in Tuscany, Archangeli sup- ^ Reliqua, etc.: " the rest let us put off till 

poses to be better than that in Rome. to-morrow." 

' Case 0/ Gomez : a veritable case, referred * Estn/ette : news carrier. 



470 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

And as for tripping in Eutropius . . . well, 355 

Reason the more that we strain every nerve 
To do him justice, mould a model-mouth, 
A Bartolus-cum-Baldo ^ for next age : 
For that I purse the pieces, work the brain. 
And want both Gomez and the marriage-case, 360 

Success with which shall plaster aught of pate 
That 's broken in me by Bottini's flail, 
And bruise his own, belike, that wags and brags. 
Adve7'ti sKpplico himiiliter '^ 

Quod don't the fungus see, the fop divine 365 

That one hand drives two horses, left and right? 
With this rein did I rescue from the ditch 
The fortune of our Franceschini, keep 
Unsplashed the credit of a noble House, 

And set the fashionable cause at Rome 370 

A-prancing till bystanders shouted ' 'ware! ' 
The other rein's judicious management 
Sui^'ered old Somebody to keep the pace. 
Hobblingly play the roadster : who but he 
■ Had his opinion, was not led by the nose 375 

In leash of quibbles strung to look like law! 
You '11 soon see, — when 1 go to pay devoir 
And compliment him on confuting me. — 
If, by a back-swing of the pendulum, 

Grace be not, thick and threefold, consequent. 380 

'I must decide as I see proper, Don! 
I 'm Pope, I have my inward lights for guide. 
Had learning been the matter in dispute. 
Could eloquence avail to gainsay fact. 

Yours were the victory, be comforted! ' 385 

Cinuzzo will be gainer by it all. 
Quick then with Gomez, hot and hot ne.xt case! " 



Follows, a letter, takes the other side. 

Tall blue-eyed Fisc whose head is capped with cloud. 

Doctor Bottini, — to no matter who, 390 

Writes on the Monday two days afterward. 

Now shall the honest championship of right. 

Crowned with success, enjoy at last, unblamed. 

Moderate triumph! Now shall eloquence 

Poured forth in fancied floods for virtue's sake, 395 

(The print is sorrowfully dyked and dammed, 

1 Bario!us-c2t}n-Baldo : see notes on Bar- - Adverti, etc. : I humbly beg that it may 
tolus and Baldo, I. Both rolled into one be noticed. 
would but equal Cinone. 



THE BOOK AXD THE RLVG. 471 

But shows where fain the unbridled force would flow, 

Finding a channel) — now shall this refresh 

The thirsty donor with a drop or two! 

Here has been truth at issue with a lie : 400 

Let who gained truth the day have handsome pride 

In his own prowess! Eh! What ails the man? 



" Well, it is over, ends as I foresaw : 

Easily proved, Pompilia's innocence! 

Catch them entrusting Guide's guilt to me 405 

WHio had, as usual, the plain truth to plead. 

I always knew the clearness of the stream 

Would show the fish so thoroughly, child might prong 

The clumsy monster : with no mud to splash, 

Small credit to lynx-eye and lightning-spear! 410 

This Guido. — (much sport he contrived to make, 

Who at first twist, preamble of the cord. 

Turned white, told all, like the poltroon he was! ) — 

Finished, as you expect, a penitent. 

Fully confessed his crime, and made amends. 415 

And, edifying Rome last Saturday, 

Died like a saint, poor devil! That's the man 

The gods still give to my antagonist : 

Imagine how Arcangeli claps wing 

And crows! 'Such formidable facts to face, 420 

So naked to attack, my client here. 

And yet I kept a month the Fisc at bay. 

And in the end had foiled him of the prize 

By this arch-stroke, this plea of privilege. 

But that the Pope must gratify his whim, 425 

Put in his word, poor old man, — let it pass! ' . 

— Such is the cue to which all Rome responds. 

What with the plain truth given me to uphold, 

And, should I let truth slip, the Pope at hand 

To pick up, steady her on legs again, 430 

iMy office turns a pleasantry indeed! 

Not that the burly boaster did one jot 

O' the little was to do — young Spreti's work! 

But for him, — mannikin and dandiprat, 

Mere candle-end and inch of cleverness 435 

Stuck on Arcangeli's save-all, — but for him 

The spruce \oung Spreti, what is bad were worse! 

" I looked that Rome should have the natural gird 

At advocate with case that proves itself: 

I knew Arcangeli would grin and brag : 440 

But what say you to one impertinence 



472 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Might move a stone ? That monk, you are to know, 

That barefoot Augustinian whose report 

O' the dying woman's words did detriment 

To my best points it took the freshness from, 445 

— That meddler preached to purpose yesterday 

At San Lorenzo as a winding-up 

O' the show which proved a treasure to the church. 

Out comes his sermon smoking from the press : 

Its text — ' Let God be true, and every man 450 

A liar' — and its application, this 

The longest-winded of the paragraphs, 

I straight unstitch, tear out and treat you with : 

'T is piping hot and posts through Rome to-day. 

Remember it, as I engage to do! 455 



" But if you rather be disposed to see 

In the result of the long trial here, — 

This dealing doom to guilt and doling praise 

To innocency, — any proof that truth 

May look for vindication from the world, 460 

Much will you have misread the signs, I say. 

God, who seems acquiescent in the main 

With those who add '■ So will he ever sleep' — 

Flutters their foolishness from time to time, 

Puts forth His right-hand recognizably ; 465 

Even as, to fools who deem He needs must right 

Wrong on the instant, as if earth were heaven, 

He wakes remonstrance — 'Passive, Lord, how long.?' 

Because Pompilia's purity prevails, 

Conclude you, all truth triumphs i n the ead ? 470 

So might those old inhabiIaiTfs~6T the ark. 

Witnessing haply their dove's safe return. 

Pronounce there was no danger, all the while 

O' the deluge, to the creature's counterparts. 

Aught that beat wing i' the world, was white or soft, — 475 

And that the lark, the thrush, the culver ^ too. 

Might easily have traversed air, found earth. 

And brought back olive-branch in unharmed bill. 

Methinks I hear the Patriarch's warning voice — 

* Though this one breast, by miracle, return, 480 

No wave rolls by, in all the waste, but bears 

Within it some dead dove-like thing as dear. 

Beauty made blank and harmlessness destroyed!' 

How many chaste and noble sister-fames 

Wanted the extricating hand, so lie 4^5 

* Culver : wood-pigeon. 



THE BOOK AXD THE RING. 473 

Strangled, for one Pompilia proud above 
The welter, plucked from the world's calumny, 
Stupidity, simplicity, — who cares? 

'* Romans! An elder race possessed your land 

Long ago, and a false faith lingered still, 490 

As shades do though the morning-star be out. 

Doubtless some pagan of the twihght-day 

Has often pointed to a cavern-mouth 

Obnoxious to beholders, hard by Rome, 

And said, — nor he a bad man. no, nor fool, 495 

Onlv a man born blind like all his mates, — 

' Here skulk in safety, lurk, defying law, 

The devotees to execrable creed, 

Adoring — with what culture . . . Jove, avert 

Thy vengeance from us worshippers of thee! . . . 500 

What rites obscene — their idol-god, an Ass! ' 1 

So went the word forth, so acceptance found, 

So century re-echoed century, 

Cursed the accursed, — and so, from sire to son. 

You Romans cried ' The otTscourings of our race 505 

Corrupt within the depths there : fitly fiends 

Perform a temple-service o'er the dead : 

Child, gather garment round thee, pass nor pry!' 

Thus groaned your generations : till the time 

Grew ripe, and lightning had revealed, belike, — 510 

Thro' crevice peeped into by curious fear, — 

Some object even fear could recognize 

r the place of spectres ; on the illumined wall, 

To-wit, some nook, tradition talks about. 

Narrow and short, a corpse's length, no more : 515 

And by it, in the due receptacle. 

The little rude brown lamp of earthenware. 

The cruse, was meant for flowers but now held blood, 

The rough-scratched palm-branch,'- and the legend left 

Pro Christo? Then the mystery lay clear: 520 

The abhorred one w-as a martyr all the time, 

Heaven's sXint whereof earth was not worthy. What? 

Do you continue in the old belief? 

Where blackness bides unbroke, must devils brood ? 

Is it so certain not another cell • 525 

O' the myriad that make up the catacomb 

Contains'some saint a second flash would show? 

Will you ascend into the light of day 

• Idol-god, an Ass : an accusation common blems found graven in the c.iticombs, in token 
against the early Christians. of moral victory. 

2 Palm-branch : one of the Christian em- ^ p^g Christo : for Christ. 



474 THE RING AKD THE BOOK. 

And, having recognized a martyr's shrine, 

Go join the votaries that gape around 530 

Each vulgar god that awes the market-place ? 

Are these the objects of your praising? See! 

In the outstretched riglit hand of Apollo, there, 

Lies screened a scorpion : housed amid the folds 

Of Juno's mantle lurks a centipede! 535 

Each statue of a god were litlier styled 

Demon and devil. Glorify no brass 

That shines like burnished gold in noonday glare. 

For fools! Be otherwise instructed, you! 

And preferably ponder, ere ye judge, 540 

Each incident of this strange human play 

Privily acted on a theatre 

That seemed secure from every gaze but God's, — 

Till, of a sudden, earthquake laid wall low 

And let the world perceive wild work inside 545 

And how, in petrifaction of surprise, 

The actors stood, — raised arm and planted foot, — 

Mouth as it made, eye as it evidenced. 

Despairing shriek, triumphant hate, — transfixed, 

Both he who takes and she who yields the life. 550 

"As ye become spectators of this scene, 

Watch obscuration of a pearl-pure fame 

By vapory films, enwoven circumstance. 

— A soul made weak by its pathetic want 

Of just the first apprenticeship to sin 555 

Which thenceforth makes the sinning soul secure 

From all foes save itself, souls' truliest foe, — 

Since egg turned snake needs fear no serpentry, — 

As ye behold this web of circumstance 

Deepen the more for every thrill and throe, 560 

Convulsive effort to disperse the films 

And disenmesh the fame o' the martyr, — mark 

How all those means, the unfriended one pursues, 

To keep the treasure trusted to her breast. 

Each struggle in the flight from death to life, 565 

How all, by procuration of the powers 

Of darkness, are transformed, — no single ray, 

Shot forth to show and sa\e the inmost star. 

But, passed as through hell's prism, proceeding black 

To the world that hates white : as ye watch, I say, 570 

Till dusk and such defacement grow eclipse 

By, — marvellous perversity of man ! — 

The inadequacy and inaptitude 

Of that self-same machine, that very law 

Man vaunts, devised to dissipate the gloom, 575 



THE BOOK AXD THE RIXG. 475 

Rescue the drowning orb from calumny, 

— Hear law, appointed to defend the just, 

Submit, for best defence, that wickedness 

Was bred of flesh and innate with the bone 

Borne by Pompilia's spirit for a space, 580 

And no mere chance fault, passionate and brief: 

Finally, when ye find, — after this touch 

Of man's protection which intends to mar 

The last pin-point of ligiit and damn the disc. — 

One wave of the hand of God amid the worlds 585 

Bid vapor vanish, darkness flee away. 

And let the vexed star culminate in peace 

Approachable no more by earthly mist — - 

What I call God's hand. — you, perhaps, — mere chance 

Of the true instinct of an old good man 590 

Who happens to hate darkness and love light. — 

In whom too was the eye that saw, not dim, 

The natural force to do the thing he saw. 

Nowise abated, — both by miracle, — 

All this well pondered, — I demand assent 595 

To the enunciation of my text ^^,,^ 

In face of one proof more that 'Ggd-femie 

-•\ni_e.v^i7 m^n '^ 'iar ' — that_wKo_iru&ts — 

T-^Jiuiiian testimony for a"fact 

Gets this sole fact — hhiiself is proved a fool ; 600 

Man's speech being false, if but by consequence 

That only strength is true : while man is weak, 

And, since truth seems reserved for heaven not earth. 

Plagued here by earth's prerogative of lies, 

Should learn to love and long for what, one day, 605 

Approved by life's probation, he may speak. 

" For me, the weary and worn, who haply prompt 

To mirth or pity, as I move the mood, — 

A friar who glides unnoticed to the grave. 

With these bare feet, coarse robe and rope-girt waist. — 610 

I have long since renounced your world, ye know : 

Yet what forbids I weigh the prize forgone. 

The worldly worth ? I dare, as I were dead. 

Disinterestedly judge this and that 

Good ye account good : but God tries the heart. 615 

Still, if you question me of my content 

At having put each human pleasure by, 

I answer, at the urgency of truth : 

As this world seems, I dare not say I know 

- — Apart from Christ's assurance which decides — 620 

Whether I have not failed to taste much joy. 

For many a doubt will fain perturb my choice — 



476 THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Many a dream of life spent otherwise — 

How human love, in varied shapes, might work 

As glory, or as rapture, or as grace : 625 

How conversancy with the books that teach, 

The arts that help, — how, to grow good and great, 

Rather than simply good, and bring thereby 

Goodness to breathe and live, nor. born i' the brain, 

Die there, — how these and many another gift 630 

Of life are precious though abjured by me. 

But, for one prize, best meed of mightiest man, 

Arch-object of ambition, — earthly praise, 

Repute o' the world, the flourish of loud trump, 

The softer social fluting, — Oh, for these, 635 

— No, my friends! Fame, — that bubble which, vi^orld-wide 

Each blows and bids his neighbor lend a breath. 

That so he haply may behold thereon 

One more enlarged distorted false fool's-face, 

Until some glassy nothing grown as big 640 

Send by a touch the imperishable to suds, — 

No, in renouncing fame, my loss was light. 

Choosing obscurity, my chance was well!" 



Didst ever touch such ampollosity ^ 

As the monk's own bubble, let alone its spite? 645 

What's his speech for, but just the fame he flouts? 

How he dares reprehend both high and low. 

Nor stoops to turn the sentence " God is true 

And every man a liar — save the Pope 

Happily reigning — my respects to him!" 650 

And so round off the period. Molinism 

Simple and pure! To what pitch get we next? 

I find that, for first pleasant consequence, 

Gomez, who had intended to appeal 

From the absurd decision of the Court, 655 

Declines, though plain enough his privilege, 

To call on help from lawyers any more — 

Resolves earth's liars may possess the world, 

Till God have had sufficiency of both : 

So may I whistle for my job and fee! 660 

But, for this virulent and rabid monk, — 

If law be an inadequate machine. 

And advocacy, froth and impotence. 

We shall soon see, my blatant brother! That's 

Exactly what I hope to show your sort! 665 

'^Ampollosity : wind-bag quality. 



THE BOOK AXD THE RIXG. 477 

For, by a veritable piece of luck, 

The providence, you monks round period with, 

All mav be gloriously retrieved. Perpend! 

Tliat Monastery of the Convertites 

Whereto the Court consigned Pompilia first, 670 

— Observe, if convertite, why, sinner tlien. 
Or what "s the pertinency of award ? — 
And whither she was late returned to die, 

— Still in their jurisdiction, mark again! — 

That thrifty Sisterhood, foi- perquisite, 675 

Claims every piece whereof may die possessed 

Each sinner in the circuit of its walls. 

Now, this Pompilia seeing that, by death 

O' the couple, all their wealth devolved on her. 

Straight utilized the respite ere decease, 680 

By regular conveyance of the goods 

She thought her own, to will and to devise, — 

Gave all to friends, Tighetti and the like, 

In trust for him she held her son and heir, 

Gaetano, — trust which ends with infancy: 685 

So willing and devising, since assured 

The justice of the Court would presently 

Confirm her in her rights and exculpate. 

Re-integrate and rehabilitate — 

Place her as, through my pleading, now she stands. 690 

But here 's the capital mistake : the Court 

Found Guido guilty, — but pronounced no word 

About the innocency of his wife : 

I grounded charge on broader base, I hope! 

No matter whether wife be true or false, 695 

The husband must not push aside the law. 

And punish of a sudden : that 's the point : 

Gather from out my speech the contrary! 

It follows that Pompilia, unrelieved 

By formal sentence from imputed fault, 700 

Remains unfit to have and to dispose 

Of property which law provides shall lapse. 

Wherefore the Monastery claims its due: 

And whose, pray, whose the office, but the Fisc's? 

Who but I institute procedure next 705 

Against the person of dishonest life, 

Pompilia whom last week I sainted so? 

I it is teach the monk what scripture means. 

And that the tongue should prove a two-edged sword, 

No axe sharp one side, blunt the other way. 710 

Like what amused the town at Guide's cost! 

Astrcea rediixl ^ I 've a second chance 

• Asima redux : justice brought back. 



478 THE RLXG AXD THE BOOK. 

Before the self-same Court o' the Governor 

Who soon shall see volte-face and chop, change sides. 

Accordingly, I charge you on your life, 715 

Send me with all despatch the judgment late 

O" the Florence Rota Court, confirmative 

O" the prior judgment at Arezzo, clenched 

Again by the Granducal signature. 

Wherein Pompilia is convicted, doomed, 720 

And only destined to escape through flight 

The proper punishment. Send me the piece, — 

I'll work it! And this foul-mouthed friar shall find 

His Noah's-dove that brought t'he olive back 

Turn into quite the other sooty scout, 725 

The raven, Noah first put forth the ark. 

Which never came back but ate carcasses! 

No adequate machinery in law? 

No power of life and death i' the learned tongue? 

Methinks I am already at my speech, 730 

Startle the world with "Thou, Pompilia, thus? 

How is the fine gold of the Temple dim!" 

And so forth. But the courier bids me close. 

And clip away one joke that runs through Rome, 

Side by side with the sermon which I send. 735 

How like the heartlessness of the old hunks 

Arcangeli! His Count is hardly cold. 

The client whom his blunders sacrificed. 

When somebody must needs describe the scene — 

How the procession ended at the church 740 

That boasts the famous relic : quoth our brute, 

" Why, that 's just .Martial's phrase ^ for ' make an end ' — 

Ad ntnbilicum sic perveittian est ! " 

The callous dog, — let who will cut off head, 

He cuts a joke and cares no more than so! 745 

I think my speech shall modify his mirth. 

" How is the fine gold dim ! " — but send the piece ! 



Alack, Bottini, what is my next word 

But death to all that hope? The Instrument 

Is plain before me, print that ends my Book 750 

With the definitive verdict of the Court, 

Dated September, six months afterward, 

(Such trouble and so long the old Pope gave!) 

'^ Thefatnous relic .. .MartiaVsphrasc : used to be rolled; hence the phrase ad 

see line 184. Umbilicus also means an orna- umbilicutn perve7tire (Martial, iv. 8g) meant 

mental knob at the end of the stick round " to reach the end" of a book. 
which books, in Greek and Roman times, 



THE BOOK AM) THE R/XG. 479 

"In restitution of the perfect fame 

Of dead Pompilia, quondam Guido's wife, 755 

. And warrant to her representative 
Domenico Tighetti, barred hereby, 
While doing duty in his guardianship. 
From all molesting, all disquietude, 

Each perturbation and vexation brought 760 

Or threatened to be brought against the heir 
By the Most Venerable Convent called 
Saint Mary Magdalen o' the Convertites 
r the Corse." 

Justice done a second time! 
Well judged, Mark Antony, Locnm-tejiens 1 765 

O" the (Governor, a Venturini too! 
For which I save thy name, — last of the list! 

Next year but one, completing his nine years 

Of rule in Rome, died Innocent my Pope 

— By some account, on his accession-day. 770 

If he thought doubt would do the next age good, 

'T is pity he died unapprised what birth 

His reign may boast of, be remembered by — 

Terrible Pope, too, of a kind, — Voltaire. 

And so an end of all i' the story. Strain 775 

Never so much my eyes, I miss the mark 

If lived or died that Gaetano, child 

Of Guido and Pompilia : only find. 

Immediately upon his father's death, 

A record, in the annals of the town — 7S0 

That Porzia, sister of our Guido, moved 

The Priors of Arezzo and their head 

Its Gonfalonier ■•^ to give loyally 

A public attestation of the right 

O" the Franceschini to all reverence — 7S5 

Apparently because of the incident 

O' the murder, — there 's no mention made o' the crime. 

But what else could have caused such urgency 

To cure the mob, just then, of greediness 

For scandal, love of lying vanity, 790 

And appetite to swallow crude reports 

That bring annoyance to their betters? — bane 

Which, here, was promptly met by antidote. 

I like and shall translate the eloquence 

Of nearly the worst Latin ever writ : 795 

' Locum-tencns : a proxy, holding the ^ Gonfalonier : bearer of the gonfalon or 

place of the governor. banner of the town, the mayor. 



48o THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

" Since antique time whereof the memory 

Holds the beginning, to this present hour, 

The Franceschini ever shone, and shine 

Still i' the primary rank, supreme amid 

The lustres of Arezzo. proud to own 800 

In this great family, the flag-bearer, 

Guide of her steps and guardian against foe. — 

As in the first beginning, so to-day! '' 

There, would you disbelieve the annalist, 

Go rather by the babble of a bard? 805 

I thought, Arezzo, thou hadst fitter souls, 

Petrarch,! — nay, Buonarroti at a pinch. 

To do thee credit as vexilliferl - 

Was it mere mirth the Patavinian ^ meant. 

Making thee out, in his veracious page, 810 

Founded by Janus of the Double Face? 

Well, proving of such perfect parentage. 

Our Gaetano, born of love and hate, 

Did the babe live or die? I fain would find! 

What were his fancies if he grew a man ? 815 

Was he proud, — a true scion of the stock 

Which bore the blazon, shall make bright my page — 

Shield, Azure, on a Triple Mountain, Or. 

A Palm-tree, Proper, whereunto is tied 

A Greyhound, Rampant, striving in the slips? 820 

Or did' he love his mother, the base-born. 

And fight i' the ranks, unnoticed by the world ? 

Such, then, the final state o' the story. So 

Did the Star Wormwood in a blazing fall 

Frighten awhile the waters and lie lost. 825 

So did this old woe fade from memory : 

Till after, in the fulness of the days, 

I needs must find an ember yet unquenched. 

And, breathing, blow the spark to flame. It lives, 

If precious be the soul of man to man. 830 

So, British Public, who may like me yet. 

(Marry and amen!) learn one lesson hence 

Of many which whate-ver lives should teach : 

This lesson, that our human speech is naught, 
I Our human testimony false, our fame 835 

' And human estimation words and wind. 



' Petrarch was born in the town of Arezzo, ^ Vexillifer : standard-bearer. 

and Buonarroti (Michel Angelo) in the terri- ' The Patavinian : Livy, born in Padua, 

tory, though not in the town itself. or Patavium, which is its ancient name. 



THE BOOK AXD THE RING. 481 

Why take tlie artistic way to prove so much? 
Because, it is tlie glory and good of Art, 
That Art remains the one way possible 

Of speaking truth, to mouths like mine at least. 840 

How look a brother in the face and say 
'• Thy right is wrong, eyes hast thou yet art blind. 
Thine ears are stufted and stopped, despite their length : 
And. oh, the foolishness thou countest faith I'' 
Say this as silverly as tongue can troll — 845 

The anger of the man may be endured. 
The shrug, the disa]ipointed eyes of him 
Are not so bad to bear — but here's the ])lague 
That all this trouble comes of telling truth. 
Which truth, by when it reaches him, looks false, 850 

Seems to be just the thing it would supplant, 
Nor recognizable by whom it left : 
While falsehood would have done the work of truth. 
But Art, — wherein man nowise speaks to men. 
Only to mankind, — Art may tell a truth 'w ^, 1,- B'5^ . 

^bliquely, do the thing shall breed the thought, 
^Y/sJ>/A^"^'^'^or wrong the thought, missing the mediate word. 
I So may you paint your picture, twice show truth, 

Beyond mere imagery on the wall, — 

So. note by note, bring music from your mind, S60 

Deeper than ever e'en Beethoven dived, — 
So write a book shall mean beyond the facts. 
Suffice the eye and save the soul beside. 

And save the soul! If this intent save mine. — 

If the rough ore be rounded to a ring, 865 

Render all duty which good ring should do, 

And, failing grace, succeed in guardianship. - 

Might mine but lie outside thine. Lyric Love. 

Thy rare gold ring of verse (the poet praised) ' 

Linking our England to his Italy! S70 

* The poet : the Italian critic, poet, and "Qui scrisse e mori E B. Browning, che 

patriot, Tommaseo (1803-1874), who wrote . . . fece del suo verso aureo anello fra 

the inscription on the tablet placed on the Italia e Inghilterra." [Here wrote and died 

walls of Casa Guidi by the municipality of E. B. Browning, who . . . made with her 

Florence to the memory of Mrs. Browning: golden verse a ring linking Italy to England.] 

21 



APPENDIX. 



THE RAW MATERIAL OF THE RING AND THE BOOK. 

Almost every incident contained in the " Old Square Yellow Book " 
is said to have been worked into the poem. The bare facts of the 
antique chronicle, together with an outline of the story it tells, are given 
by Mrs. Orr as follows : — 

There lived in Rome in 1679 Pietro and Violante Comparini, an 
elderly couple of the middle class, fond of show and good living, and 
who in spite of a fair income had run considerably into debt. They 
were, indeed, at the period in question, in receipt of a papal bounty, 
employed in the relief of the needy who did not like to beg. Creditors 
were pressing, and only one expedient suggested itself: they must have 
a child ; and thus enable themselves to draw on their capital, now tied 
up for the benefit of an unknown heir-at-law. The wife conceived 
this plan, and also carried it out, without taking her husband into her 
confidence. She secured beforehand the infant of a poor and not very 
reputable woman, announced her expectation, half miraculous at her 
past fifty years, and became, to all appearance, the mother of a girl, the 
Francesca Pompilia of the story. 

When Pompilia had reached the age of thirteen, there was also in 
Rome Count Guido Franceschini, an impoverished nobleman of Arezzo, 
and the elder of three brothers, of whom the second. Abate Paolo, and 
the third. Canon Girolamo, also play some part in the story. Count 
Guido himself belonged to the minor ranks of the priesthood, and had 
spent his best years in seeking preferment in it. Preferment had not 
come, and the only means of building up the family fortunes in his own 
person, was now a moneyed wife. He was poor, fifty years old, and jjer- 
sonally unattractive. A contemporary chronicle describes him as short, 
thin, and pale, and with a projecting nose. He had nothing to offer 
but his rank ; but in the case of a very obscure heiress, this might suf- 
fice, and such a one seemed to present herself in Pompilia Comparini. 
He heard of her at the local centre of gossip, the barl)er"s shop : re- 

483 



484 APPENDIX. 

ceived an exaggerated estimate of her dowry ; and made proposals 
for her hand; being supported in his suit by the Abate Paul. They 
did not, on their side, understate the advantages of the connection. 
They are, indeed, said to have given as their yearly income a sum ex- 
ceeding their capital, and Violante was soon dazzled into consenting to 
it. Old Pietro was more wary. He made inquiries as to the state of 
the Count's fortune, and declined, under plea of his daughter's extreme 
youth, to think cJf him as a son-in-law. 

Violante pretended submission, secretly led Pompilia to a church, the 
very church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, where four years later the mur- 
dered bodies of all three were to be displayed, and brought her back 
as Count Guide's wife. Pietro could only accept the accomplished 
fact ; and he so far resigned himself to it, that he paid down an instal- 
ment of his daughter's dowry, and made up the deficiency by transfer- 
ring to the newly married couple all that he actually possessed. This 
left him no choice but to live under their roof, and the four removed 
together to the Franceschini abode at Arezzo. The arrangement 
proved disastrous ; and at the end of a few months Pietro and Violante 
were glad to return to Rome, though with empty pockets, and on 
money lent them for the journey by their son-in-law. 

We have conflicting testimony as to the cause of this rupture. The 
Governor of Arezzo, writing to the Abate Paul in Rome, lays all the 
blame of it on the Comparini, whom he taxes with vulgar and aggres- 
sive behavior ; and Mr. Browning readily admits that at the beginning 
there may have been faults on their side. But popular judgment, as 
well as the balance of evidence, were in favor of the opposite view ; 
and curious details are given by Pompiha and by a servant of the 
family, a sworn witness on Pompilia's trial, of the petty cruelties and 
privations to which both parents and child were subjected. 

So much, at all events, was clear ; Violante's sin had overtaken her ; 
and it now occurred to her, apparently for the first time, to cast off its 
burden by confession. The moment was propitious, for the Pope had 
proclaimed a jubilee in honor of his eightieth year, and absolution wag 
to be had for the asking. But the Church in this case made conditions. 
Absolution must be preceded by atonement. Violante must restore to 
her legal heirs that of which her pretended motherhood had defrauded 
them. The first step toward this was to reveal the fraud to her hus- 
band ; and Pietro lost no time in making use of the revelation. He 
repudiated Pompih'a, and with her all claims on her husband's part. 
The case was carried into court. The Court decreed a compromise. 
Pietro appealed from the decree, and the question remained unsettled. 

The chief sufferer by these proceedings was Pompilia herself. She 



APPtXP/X. 1 , 

alreadv had reason to dread her husband as a tyrani — ne to dislike 
her as. a victim ; and his discovery of her base birth, with the threatened 
loss of the greater part of her dowry, could only result, with such a man, 
in increased aversion towards her. From this moment his one aim 
seems to have been to get rid of his wife, but in such a manner as nut 
to forfeit any pecuniary advantage he might still derive from their 
union. This could only be done by convicting her of infidelity ; and 
he attacked her so furiously, and so persistently, on the subject of a cer- 
tain Canon GiusepjK' Caponsaccin. whom she barely knew, but whose 
attention.s lie declared her to have challenged, that at last she fled from 
Arezzojvith this very man. 

She* ad appealed for protection against her husband's violence to 
the Archbishop and to the Governor She had striven to enlist the 
aid of his brother-in-law, Conti. She had implored a priest in confes- 
sion to write for her to her parents, and induce them to fetch her away. 
But the whole town was in the interest of the Franceschini, or in dread 
of them. Her prayers were useless, and Caponsacchi, whom she had 
heard of as a " resolute man." appeared her last resource. He was, as 
she knew, contemplating a journey to Rome ; an opportunity presented 
itself for speaking to him from her window, or her balcony; and she 
p^^rsuadcd him. though not without difficulty, to assist her escape, and 
induct her to her old home. On a given night she slipped away from 
lier husband's side, and joined the Canon where he awaited her with a 
carriage. They travelled day and night tilj they reached Castelnuovo, 
a village within four hours of the journey's end. There tliey were com- 
pelled to rest, and there also \\\e husband overtook them. They were 
net together at the moment ; but the fact of the elopement was patent ; 
and if Franceschini had killed his wife there, in the supposed excite 
mtnt of the discovery, the law might have dealt leniently with him. 
Bu^ it suited him best for the time being to let her live. He procured 
the arrest of the fugitives, and after a .siiort confinement on the spot, 
they were conveyed to the New Prisons in Rome (Carceri ISuove) and 
tried on the charge of adultery. 

It is impossible not to believe that Count Guido had been working 
toward this end. Pornpilia's verbal communications with Caponsaccli' 
had been supplemented by letters, now brought to him in her nann , 
now thrown or let down from her window as he passed the house. 
They were written, as he said, on the subject of the flight, and, as hi 
also said, he burned them as soon as re.ad, not doubting their authen- 
ticity. But Pompilia declared, on examination, that she could neither 
write nor read: and setting aside all presumption ot her veracity, this 
was more tl.an probable. The writer of the letters must, therefore, have 



486 APPE/VDIX. 

been the Count, or some one employed by him for the putpose. He 
how completed the intrigue by producing eighteen or twenty more of a 
very incriminating cliaracter, which he declared to have been left by the 
prisoners at Castelnuovo ; and these were not only disclaimed with every 
appearance of sincerity by both the persons accused, but bore the marks 
of forger}- within themselves. 

Pompilia and Caponsacchi answered all the questions addressed to them 
simply and firmly ; and though their statements did not always coincide, 
these were calculated on the whole to create a moral conviction of their 
innocence ; the facts on which they disagreed being of little weight. 
But moral conviction was not legal proof; the question of false testi- 
mony does not seem to have been even raised ; and t!ie Court foimd 
itself in a dilemma, which it acknowledged in the following way : it was 
decreed that for his complicity in " the flight and deviation of Francesca 
Comparini," and too great intimacy with her, Caponsacchi should be 
banished for three years to Civita Vecchia ; and that Pompilia, on her 
side, should be relegated, for the time being, to a convent. That is to 
sa}' : the prisoners were pronounced guilty ; and a merely nominal 
punishment was inflicted upon tliem. 

The records of this trial contain almost everj-thing of biographical or 
even dramatic interest in the original b6ok. They are, so far as they 
go, the complete history of the case ; and the result of the trial, am- 
biguous as it was, supplied the only argument on which an even form?J 
defence of the subsequent murder could be based. The substance of 
these records appears in full in Mr. Browning's work ; and his readers 
can judge for themselves whether the letters which were intended to 
substantiate Pompilia's guilt, could, even if she had possessed the power 
of writing, have been written by a woman so young and so uncul- 
tured as herself They will also see that the Count's plot against his 
wife was still more deeply laid than the above-mentioned circumstarces 
attest. 

Count Guido was of course not satisfied. He wanted a divorce ; and 
he continued to sue for it by means of his brother, the Abate Paul, then 
residing in Rome ; but before long he received news which was destined 
to change his plans. Pompilia was about to become a mother ; and in 
consideration of her state, she had been removed from the convent to 
her paternal home, \^ here she was still to be ostensibly a prisoner. The 
Comparini then occupied a small villa outside one of the city gates. A 
few months later, in this .secluded spot, the Countess Franceschini gave 
birth to a son, Wnnm her parents lost no time in conveying to a place 
of concealment and safety. The murder took place a fortnight after 
this event, i give the rest of the storv in an almost literal translation 



i 



